Splatterhouse 3: Nightmare (2010)
by Koen Phoenix
Summary: After finding out Jennifer is pregnant, Rick decides to cool his head a couple states over at a festival and ends up facing another creature entombed in the Abyss that is getting itself free through a demonic mercenary.
1. Chapter 1

Splatterhouse 3

Chapter 1: Deception and Frustration

The room smelt of strawberries and vanilla which wafted from scented candles. A poster of a Lamb of God album was put on the wall and there was clothes littered across the floor in piles. Many sorted by underwear, pants and shirts. A young man and woman sorted through a pile of laundry, tossing them in the appropriate piles. The man had short brown hair and black framed glasses. He wore a simple black t-shirt and jeans with holes in the knee's, a chain hung from his pants.

A beautiful young woman with blond hair that hung down to the center of her back smiled nervously at the man. Unlike the young man, she was much more immodestly dressed. She wore a braw and shorts with slippers on her feet.

The young man looked up at her. "What is it Jen?"

Jennifer, the young woman, looked down and bit her lip. "Rick, we're graduating in three months."

Rick nodded. "Yeah, pretty exciting, isn't it. I'm kinda nervous myself."

She looked up at him and sighed. "Well, how would you feel about a baby?"

Rick shrugged. "Well it's not that I'm not interested in having kids, but I don't think I'm ready just yet."

She frowned. "Yeah..." She looked away from him, at the wall. "Well... I'm kind of... pregnant."

Rick lay on the bed, two months had passed. He stared at the ceiling, a bone mask was face up on his chest. They were still trying to make up their minds on what to do.

"You know, if you don't make up your mind soon, Jen's gonna be in the third trimester and you will be stuck with a crying brat." The mask remained immobile, but Rick could still hear the voice in his head.

"I know," Rick said out loud. "I'm just gonna cool my head at the music festival. I'll be meeting up with some friends there, it'll help me calm down." He sighed. "Man, why is THIS so much harder? I thought I'd done it all, now I'm freaking out."

"Babies do that to a man, they chop of their dicks generally."

"Shut up," Rick looked at the television. Army of Darkness was playing.

"So why'd you lie to Jen and say it was a horror convention?"

"So I could be alone. I wanna relax, it'll help me think." Rick closed his eyes.

"You know, I really wish they'd use real blood for these movies. All I see is black and white." The mask commented. "Kind of takes away from the movie."

"If only we had been more careful." Rick looked at the bathroom door next to his bed. "I thought we were safe."

"Not a hundred percent effective, dumbass." The mask said. "But you humans are disgusting in bed. I have to listen to you two fucking every other night. I've got it down to a science, I can tell what kind of shouts mean you're-"

"Not now," Rick sighed. "Can't wait, tomorrow I get on the plane."

The mask paused. "Take me with you."

"No," Rick didn't even hesitate.

"Come on, I'll be on my best behavior, I swear!"

Rick picked up the mask and sat up, looking it through its eye-holes. "Your best behavior?" He looked skeptical.

"Rick, I'm bored out of my mind, every day I spend locked in your drawer except a couple hours I get to watch horror movies with you every couple days. I'm going to go insane. Just tie me to your backpack once your wife drops you off at the airport, I'll be a decoration."

Rick's eyebrows raised. "No," He sat up and walked to the drawer next to his bed, he pulled out the bottom drawer and reached a finger to the edge of the bottom of the drawer, pulling up a false bottom. He gripped the mask through the eye holes to put him in the drawer.

"Well then maybe..." The masks deep voice growled in his head. "Maybe I'll just tell Jennifer while you're out what you've been hiding in your home."

Rick looked at the mask with a narrowed gaze.

"Don't think she'd be too fond of you hiding artifacts from the abyss in your room or lying to her about the festival."

Rick scowled. "That's blackmail!"

"I know what it is, you don't have to tell me."

Rick bit his lip and set the mask on his bed. He considered his options and sighed. "Alright, fine, you get to come." He didn't like it, but he didn't have a choice. Jennifer would likely be furious if she knew he was keeping secrets so important from her. She'd also be pretty mad at him for lying about where he was going. She was a music fan too.

Rick stood in the airport, he had a pair of baggy jeans on and a t-shirt featuring Freddy Krueger with the Nightmare on Elm Street logo across it. He had a backpack on and a black suitcase. Jennifer was saying goodbye. She kissed him and he smiled at her. "Bye sweetie, have fun at your convention." She laughed and Rick looked at her stomach, she was starting to bulge slightly. He smiled back at her and waved as she left and blew her a kiss.

He waited till she was out of sight and looked around. He was in front where he had to check in his luggage, long lines from each area that was sorted by the companies that owned the planes. He walked over to the Air America line and swung his backpack in front of him. He reached inside and pulled out the bone mask, he unbuckled a strap on the front of the bag and slid the straps through the masks eyes. He buckled them together and the mask hung from his backpack like a decoration. A creepy, evil, supernatural decoration made from the remains of the innocent.

"Happy now?" Rick muttered to the mask, looking around to make sure no one could see his lips moving. Thankfully nobody was even glancing at him. All focused on their families or glancing at their watches, their tickets and so on.

"It's not as good as some other options, but for now, yes."

Rick paused and reached into his pocket, pulling out a bluetooth headset. He put it on his ear and turned it on. "Okay, now I can talk to you without anyone thinking I'm schizophrenic." He swung the backpack back over his shoulder.

He waited in line, showing his ticket and checking in his one suitcase. After he was done he walked through the bustling hallways, looking around for the proper line. He passed by a set of restaurants and he glanced at a Sbarro's. He felt into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet, checking how much money he had. He did some quick math in his head and looked back at the restaurant and checked the time on his phone. "I've got time."

"Are they selling a Stephen King book over there? Get it and I can read it on the plane." The mask was faced towards a small bookstore, on display up front was Stephen King's "Pet Semetary".

Rick turned around and looked at the display and rolled his eyes. "No,"

"Rick, I'm gonna be bored fuckless on that plane." The mask almost seemed to swing lightly towards the display on the backpack.

"I brought a book already. Which I will be reading." Rick went in line at the Sbarro's and payed for a combination pizza slice. He tossed the plate as he went back to searching for the appropriate line and folded the slice in his hand and ate as he went.

"Your school book, right?"

Rick chewed a particularly big bite and swallowed. "Can't pass my big tests if I don't study. If I don't pass em, I don't graduate." His eyes widened as he saw a line reaching across the hallway and grimaced as he saw the checkpoint. People showing I.D and walking through scanners, several were being frisked by men in uniforms. "Damn, that's a long line."

"Oh! I can't wait. Haven't you humans been freaking out about terrorists lately and now you're strip searching old ladies in wheel chairs?" The mask sounded like he was going to laugh.

"Yes," Rick walked to the end of the line and sighed.

"I hope you enjoy the free hand job." The mask laughed darkly.

"Oh, shut up, I don't want to think about it." Monsters he could handle, at least they didn't feel him up.

"You humans are just hilarious, you freak out about other humans when there's another world clawing at yours and just waiting to tear you to shreds." He laughed more loudly and Rick felt shivers go down his spine as he heard the familiar laugh echo in his mind. He was actually used to it, but it didn't stop him from shivering a bit.

"I know, the irony is rather thick, isn't it?" He said casually.

They waited in line for a half hour, the mask occasionally mocking Rick about his upcoming frisking. Rick sighed, he was almost up next. A small child was behind him, not that he was paying attention. The little girl was sucking on her thumb and staring intently at the bone mask, her other hand being gripped by her mother.

"The fuck are you looking at, you little cunt-sucker?" The mask snapped.

The little girl's eyes widened as she heard the words in her mind. "Cunt-sucker?" She asked out loud.

The mother paused and looked at her daughter, kneeling down. "Wait, did you just say your first words?" She looked excited.

"Cunt-sucker!" The little girl repeated excitedly.

Rick turned around at the words, looking at the child curiously while the mother's face turned pale. He hadn't heard the mask speaking to the child but he quickly put two and two together. Only one "person" would throw that phrase around in front of a small child. He glared behind him at the corner of the mask he could see over his shoulder.

"Baby, where did you hear that word?" The mother asked.

The little girl shrugged and the mother looked at Rick, who had a very interested expression on his face.

"You said it, didn't you?" She stood up and shouted at Rick.

Rick recoiled, if there was one thing he didn't want, it was to start trouble in the middle of an airport. "Whoa, I didn't say anything ma'am. And I certainly wouldn't say THAT to a little kid."

"Kind of funny how you're getting blamed for what I did, isn't it?" The mask sounded very amused.

The woman swelled slightly and Rick felt his guard instinctively raise. "Then where would she have heard it?"

"Maybe you need to look at your family?" Rick shrugged, doing his best to look clueless, but his eyes glinted a bit, countering his expression. "How am I supposed to know?"

A man behind the woman spoke up. "I'm sorry, but I saw the whole thing, this lad didn't say anything."

She looked at him and then back to Rick and frowned.

"Cunt-sucker!" The little girl shouted.

"My duty here is done!" The mask said in a professional tone.

Rick frowned at the masks comment and looked at the line and realized he was next. He set the bag down on the belt that led into the scanner and took off any electronic or metal devices on his person, walked through the metal detector and sighed as he looked at the man on the other side who rubbed the back of his neck. "Routine pat-down. This place hasn't gotten the scanners yet." Rick frowned and faced the scanner as his bag slid through the other side, the mask could see him as the man patted him down and both of them grimaced as the man had to feel below the belt. Rick groaned and blushed as the little girl's eyes were covered by her mother. "You're clean, move along." The man said.

Rick walked over to his bag and picked it up and filled his pockets with his loose items. "That looked fun." The mask noted cheerfully.

Rick walked away from the line and looked around, trying to figure out which terminal to go to. He put the bluetooth headset back on. "I thought you said you were going to be on your best behavior!" He whispered as loudly as he thought he could get away with.

"Ricky, ensuring a child's first words are "cunt-sucker" IS my best behavior."

Rick rubbed his forehead with his fingers. "I believe you." He sounded mortified.

"So did you enjoy the hand job?"

"Fuck you," Rick looked at the sign in front of him, the crowded hallway. He needed to go to Terminal D and look for flight 30.

"Rick-O! I think he felt your no-no's!" The mask cackled and Rick felt his cheeks burn red as he attempted to ignore the Terror Mask. He walked to the right to terminals D through F.

"I'm gonna kill you one of these days." Rick said aloud.

The mask condescended to him. "Oh, I'm so scared. Watch me shiver!"

He didn't notice the woman from before passing by him while dragging her child. He put his finger to his ear. "Up yours! You fucking prick!" He said into the device.

"Prick!" The little girl said out loud.

Rick's face turned bright red as soon as he heard it. He looked at the woman who was glaring at him. He put his hands together and smiled nervously. "I'm sorry?"

She rolled her eyes and pulled her daughter away. "I hope you never become a father." She said. "He'd probably end up a hoodlum like you."

Rick scowled at her behind her back. "Fuck you, you judgmental bitch." He muttered just loud enough that the mask could hear it.

"I hope you become a father, that way I can teach him all sorts of fun words." The mask said mischievously.

Rick frowned as he spotted Gate 30. "I'm actually hoping for a little girl if I have a kid." He walked over to it and sat down in the seats, putting his hand up to his ear so it would be more obvious he was talking on a phone. "I mean, I'll be happy either way, but I like girls better. Less aggressive, more likely to stay out of trouble."

"Less likely to give into peer pressure and break their leg sliding down the roof on a garbage can lid and bust your neighbors car."

Rick laughed a bit. "Yeah, that was dumb." He smiled. "Fun, but dumb."

He set the bag on the ground next to a seeing eye dog. It growled at the mask.

"Shoo! Fuck off!" The mask said.

The dog sniffed the mask intently, touching its wet nose against the surface of the mask. "Rick, it's touching me! Get it away from me! I hate them!" It growled at the mask again, baring its teeth.

Rick grabbed his bag and stood up, walking away from the dog and its owner, who patted his dog to calm him down. "Guess I shouldn't be surprised a dog would know something is wrong."

"I fucking hate those things." The mask would have been spitting if it could.

Rick sat down closer to the gate to the plane. "I'm not too fond of them either. Ever since I got back from the..." He looked around. "You know where... Dogs don't trust me very easily. And cats hate me." He rubbed his forehead. "Cats used to love me. Now they hiss and run away any time I come within five feet of them." He looked around. "And don't even get me started on pet stores. I can't walk into them without anything within a certain range of me freaking out."

"They sense the contamination of Necro Energy, usually anything with that much Necro in it is dangerous. That means they think YOU are dangerous."

"I guessed as much." He looked at the ground. "But only a couple people get wigged out by me. They just don't trust me until they get to know me."

"Like I said, it happens to anyone who wears me. And even though you only wore me for a short amount of time." The mask whistled. "You killed non-stop pretty much the whole time. So you're glowing, to say the least."

"Hope my "boring shit" is safe." Rick leaned forwards and put his elbow on his knee and propped up his head on his hand.

"Nobody is gonna look in there. Even if Jen finds it, she's not going to care. It's just a rock to anyone who doesn't recognize it. Souls are blind and deaf, cut off from all 5 senses, she's not gonna know what it is. Without a body to support it, a soul is helpless and unable to distinguish a single thing about the world around it."

Rick looked interested. "Didn't know that." He smirked. "Guess that means no ghosts?"

"Except souls that are heavily contaminated, if they know how to use the contamination, they can become a poltergeist. But that's unlikely." The mask sounded bored.

"I could become a poltergeist?" Rick's right eye twitched slightly. "That's creepy."

"Don't worry kid, becoming a poltergeist is a choice. You choose to use the contamination to see and generate an artificial shell that allows you to see and manipulate the world around you. Only people like West would be likely to choose that option OR know how to take it."

"Creepy," Rick noted the announcement. First class passengers were getting on the plane. "That was a short wait."

He didn't have too long to get on the plane. He walked down the aisle and looked around for his seat. He walked to the back of the plane and found his seat next to an emergency exit. "Sweet, more leg-room."

He slid his bag off his shoulder and opened the overhead compartment. "Rick, don't!" The mask said sharply.

Rick raised his bag to his face and whispered. "Why?"

"I am not going in the overhead compartment!"

"Yes, you are."

"Fuck you! No, I'm not!" The mask was shouting in his head.

Rick rolled his eyes and closed the overhead compartment and moved to his seat and sat down. He set the bag on the ground and tried to slide it under the seat in front of him. "No fucking way, Rick!"

He raised his bag to his face and looked around. No one was next to him yet. "What is your problem?" He whispered.

"I want to sit in your lap so I can look around." The mask said.

Rick clenched his right hand and clenched his teeth together. "I am not leaving this bag on my lap the whole flight."

"Well then, perhaps you wouldn't mind if I started bothering the other passengers on the flight?"

Rick's eyes widened and he looked at the mask. "You wouldn't dare."

"Remember that kid I taught a new word? I can do a whole lot worse than that. I'm sure with enough work the superstitious morons who are on here would think there's a demon on the plane and their panicking would probably cancel the flight AND your little vacation too."

Rick put his hand over his face and he sank his fingernails into his forehead. This was so frustrating. He looked around, a person was looking at the seat number and sat down next to him. Rick looked at the mask as the person slid their bag under the seat. He mouthed the word "Fine," and held his bag in his lap.

The flight was surprisingly boring, Rick used the two and half hour flight to study his weakest subject for this semester, which was made extremely difficult by the Terror Mask constantly bothering him and it was impossible to block out the sound when there wasn't any sound. He was sure it was doing this on purpose since he couldn't respond to anything without his neighbor thinking he was insane. It was clearly enjoying itself as his fist clenched in reaction to its commentary. He just wanted to tell it to be quiet, but that probably wouldn't work and it was much better than the alternative. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't be bothered, but he was extremely nervous since he didn't even want to take the Terror Mask with him. On more than one occasion he had just let it bother him while he studied, but on a plane and him unable to respond, it made things more uncomfortable.

He was felt sweet relief when the plane finally landed and he was able to get off and pick up his luggage on his way out of the building. He sighed and looked around the road in front of the building that led to the parking lot. "Okay, taxi..." He raised his arm and hailed a cab and pulled his luggage inside. He put on the bluetooth headset and pretended to fiddle with his phone. "Hey, asshole."

"You talking to me?" The mask wasn't sure if Rick was really on the phone or not.

"Yes, I'm talking to you." Rick said. "Listen, when we get to my friends place, try not to be as much of an ass as you were an unspoken amount of time ago. You were driving me insane."

"No promises, Rick."

"Yes, promises!" Rick snapped. He looked at the cab driver. "Take me to 7134 Trade Avenue, please."

The cab driver grunted in response and drove out of the airport and quickly headed south on the highway.

Rick sighed and leaned back. "I'm hanging up, I'm serious about you behaving. I don't want to repeat the "cunt-sucker" incident."

"Rick, she was asking for it. That little bitch was staring at me for over three minutes. Just oggling at me."

Rick took off the headset and sighed, looking out the window. "I've done enough sitting to last a lifetime."

"Oh don't bitch, I've been sitting in your drawer for two years." The mask snapped. "How do you think I feel?"

Rick casually put a hand next to the mask and flicked his finger against the side of it in response. After a few seconds his eyes widened and he jerked forward as it felt like his brain was dumped in a bucket of ice water. "What the fuck was that?" His voice shook as he spoke, he was looking down at his shoes and holding his head.

"I don't know, I felt it too." The mask growled. "Maybe I'll get more exercise than I thought here."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Temptation

The city bustled with activity. Rick sat in the cab, bored out of his mind. He had been there for roughly twenty minutes in the middle of a traffic jam. The sidewalks were crowded and a few beggars slept on the sidewalk. It was evening, but still busy and the warm summer air zipped through the cab, Rick closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat. If nothing else, the breeze was nice.

"Rick, look out the window!" The Terror Mask said quickly.

He turned his head to look at the mask, which was facing the window farthest from him. He glanced out the right side of the cab and looked at the crowd of people.

"Check it out, the one in the blue vest."

He focused on one of the crowd, wearing a blue vest and well pressed tan pants, an older man with pure white hair and gray eyes. Rick's heart skipped a beat. "West?"

"Bingo,"

Doctor Henry West passed by, not even noticing Rick in the cab or even paying attention to the world around him. He was reading a strange looking black book which looked absolutely archaic; he handled the pages with great care, looking at the tattered contents.

"How…. the fuck… is this possible?" Rick sounded like he didn't even believe what he was seeing. He looked at the mask and then at West as he turned the corner, having to shove his way through a crowd.

"Well, who would have thought he'd be here, eh? I doubt he's a music fan, so I don't think we can say he's here for the festival."

Rick looked at the cab driver, who was watching him with a curious expression. Rick put his left hand over his face and sighed. "I don't care," He said.

"What?" The mask sounded confused.

"I don't care what West is doing here." Rick was mainly lying to himself to try to relax. He wanted to have fun, not beat his way through an army of demons; though it was arguable he'd enjoy that too.

He faced the cab. The mask considered responding, but it decided to stay quiet. There was no use having a conversation with Rick now, in front of the driver. It put the information aside; it would talk to Rick about this a little later.

After another twenty minutes in the traffic jam, he finally started getting to his destination. The crickets chirped softly in the trees as the cab pulled up to a rickety looking two story house. Rick paid the driver and pulled out his things. The driver pulled out of the driveway and left.

"Rick, about West-"

"I don't care." He cut off the Terror Mask with an angry tone while picking up his bag and suitcase, walking up to the front door and knocking. The house was rather large, but the neighborhood looked on the shady side. The door opened after about twenty seconds.

A pale looking young man opened the door. He had frazzled red hair and immediately grabbed Rick by the arm and pulled him inside, grabbing Rick in a headlock and digging his knuckles into Rick's head. "Riiickkyyy! How's it going?"

Rick pulled himself out of the headlock and smiled. "Hey John," He looked John over. He had a skinny physique and wore a shirt featuring Metallica's Master of Puppets album and a pair of baggy jeans and only had socks. Next to the door were about 4 pairs of shoes. Rick pulled his suitcase in and kicked his shoes off.

There was a pair of identical twins playing cards with black haired male who straightened up as soon as Rick entered the room, his eyes widening, like someone had dumped a bucket of ice water on him. He held his head and looked at Rick, he waved, looking nervous all of a sudden.

The twins were both rather husky looking, one had his hair dyed bright blue and the other had his hair dyed neon green. They had trimmed beards and shaggy shoulder length hair with piercings in their right nostril and over their left eyebrows. These twins were, ironically, Fredrick and Jason, often referred to as Freddy and Jason, to their delight. The blue haired one was Freddy and the green haired one was Jason.

The nervous looking black haired male was just as skinny as Rick, his name was Albert, and everyone just called him "Al" for short. He looked like he needed a haircut; his hair was starting to reach past his ears, giving him a shaggy bed head type of look.

Rick walked towards the table and Al's eyes widened; he stood up, looking around. Rick quickly realized what was going on. Al could feel the power radiating off him, but he didn't know where it was coming from or what it was. He probably just knew it creeped him out. Rick hadn't seen him in two and a half years, so he wouldn't have gotten used to this aura Rick was sporting now.

"Looks like your friend doesn't like what he feels." The mask commented. "Al, isn't it? Who knew he was psychic?" Rick had the bag leaning off his shoulder, so the mask could actually see Al's reaction.

"So, how's the married life suiting you?" John asked while patting Rick on the shoulder.

"Pretty good… Jen's pregnant, not sure what to do about that just yet."

"Keep the baby! Life begins at conception!" Freddy said aloud only to bust up laughing after he said it. "Nah, I don't give a fuck. Scramble its brains and feed them to me for all I care."

Jason glanced at his brother, his eyebrows rising.

Freddy shrugged, looking back at Jason. "What? I'll try it. Then we can put it on YouTube to piss off the religious right-which is neither."

Rick looked around the house, it definitely needed a little work, but it was better than nothing. The living room had an indentation that connected to a surprisingly large kitchen. The floor was littered with soda cans, mostly Pepsi. In the living room was a folding card table and next to it was a pile of bean bags. They sat in front of a television with a large number of consoles hooked up to it. There was a 360, a Wii, a SNES, an N64 and a PS2. Obviously John was a gamer. Judging from the current mess of wires, it was likely that his current game was a PS2 or PS1 game. "What have you been playing lately?"

John shrugged. "Parasite Eve 2,"

Rick looked at the mask on his bag. "Ah, well where is my room?"

John walked over to the hall and pointed, past the folding card table Freddy, Jason and Al were at. "Farthest room on the right."

Rick nodded and as he walked by Al, who had sat down, Al fell out of his chair as he jerked away from Rick.

"What the fuck? Are you on ice right now?" Jason looked at Al, obviously concerned. "Cause… you know… I'm up for broadening my horizons."

Rick smirked, shaking his head as he walked down the hall. "I'll just get my shit together. I'll be back in a few minutes." He walked down to the end of the hall and opened the door on the right, walking into a small bedroom with an inflatable bed on the ground with blankets on it and a short drawer with a lamp on it next to the bed. He wasn't expecting anything fancy. He sat down on the bed and set his bag on the bed next to him and opened his suitcase.

"You know Rick, since he's here" The mask started.

"I don't care!" Rick said rather loudly. He paused, noting that he should be quieter.

"You could get him back for everything he did to you and Jennifer, Rick."

Rick paused, that was really the only comment it took. The thing he was repressing since he saw West; payback. His left hand wandered and touched the surface of the mask.

"Think of it, the authorities can't handle West. But WE can…" The mask had a dark tone to its voice. Rick had his right hand on his knee. He looked at the mask and unbuckled the straps and lifted the mask with his hand. "All that pain he caused Jennifer, he would have destroyed the world. He got away with it Rick!" He put the mask in his lap and looked at it. He turned it over to look at the inside of the mask. "You can deal that pain he caused you back to him tenfold. He may have escaped the first time, but you can kill him Rick. You can make him scream for mercy. Remember all that power you liked so much? You can have it back again." He slowly began lifting the mask. All that power and vengeance, the thought of it was so seductive. His hands actually shook as he lifted the Terror Mask. "All you have to do is put me on, and give me your soul again and WE can pay him back."

The door opened as the mask was just inches from his face, Rick seemed to snap out of it and he set the mask down, face up on the bed. The mask practically vibrated on the bed, like it was throwing a temper tantrum on the spot that no one could hear. To be fair, that was exactly what it was doing. Rick didn't notice as he looked at John.

"We're ordering pizza, you want some?" John was holding the phone in his hand.

Rick looked at the ground and put a hand to his head, he shook his head a little and then looked back at John. "Yeah, that sounds great." He tried to sound cheerful, but he sounded more nervous than anything else. "I'll take combination."

John smiled and nodded. "No prob," He glanced at the mask on the bed. "Creepy lookin' thing," He shut the door and left Rick alone, who looked at the mask and got to his feet, stepping away from it.

"Fuck you," He said coldly. "I'm going out for a drink," He stormed out of the room, holding his head.

"Fuck! I was so close! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!" The mask shouted to itself. "I am going to kill John if I get the chance!" It actually vibrated for about three seconds on the bed.

Rick stormed past the guys. He looked at John and smiled. "Listen, I'm sorry, but I've been on that plane for hours and I've gotta get some fresh air. Thanks a lot for letting me stay here."

John shrugged. "So, no pizza for you?"

Rick looked at the phone in John's hand. "I'll nibble on the leftovers." He walked to the door and waved as he put his shoes on. "I'm really sorry; I swear I'll hang out in a couple hours."

Al shrugged. "No problem, the night is young and so are we." He seemed to relax and took a drink out of a 2-liter container of Pepsi.

"That's the most cliché thing you've said." Freddy noted. "Congratulations fucktard!" He patted Al on the back.

"You're a vagina disguised as a dick." Al retorted.

Rick shut the door and as he did so he could hear Freddy saying "He's got me, I guess my plan to spread estrogen is foiled. DAMN YOU!" He laughed a bit as he heard it and looked at the ground. He jogged down to the sidewalk and looked around. It had been a while, but he saw a bar a couple blocks out of the neighborhood while he was entering. It would be a short walk. He walked down the sidewalk, looking at the houses. This was clearly a poorer neighborhood. One house he passed by was looking like it would be needing repairs soon, the shingles were looking quite worn. The yard, to the owners credit, was beautiful.

He passed two blocks, trying his very best not to think about West and failing miserably. One could practically hear the thoughts in his head repeating "Don't think about West. Don't think about West. Don't think about West. FUCK!"

He paused as he heard something. It was a cat hissing loudly. It stood behind a gate to one of the homes. He would have leaned towards it, but he knew it wasn't going to be friendly. It growled at him and had its claws bared, its fur standing on end. He kept walking, and the cat spat at him. It ran up the yard to the porch and through the open door. "I miss cats liking me." He said in a disappointed voice.

He turned around a corner and looked around the edge of the neighborhood. He smiled a bit as he looked at some stores, it wouldn't take too long to find the bar. He heard footsteps behind him and he tried to turn around at the noise, only for someone to grip him from behind. They wrapped an arm around his chest and gripped his throat. He saw a knife glint on his right, pointed at him.

"Just hand over your wallet and you'll get to keep your face in one piece."

Just one thing after another piling on top of each other made this burglar an extremely unlucky person. Rick grabbed the hand holding the knife with his right hand and bent forwards, tossing the made over his body so he fell on his back on the ground. Rick straightened up and stepped on the man's right hand. He was on the thin side and wore mostly black, his face uncovered to reveal an older man in his early thirties. Rick raised his other foot and stomped on the man's stomach, causing him to yell out. Rick bent down and grabbed the blade with his right hand. He kept his foot over the man's hand and held the blade against his throat. His eyes narrowed and the man's eyes widened in obvious fear. Rick scoffed. "Let's make this clear, I'm in a really bad fucking mood right now! I'd probably enjoy gutting you like a fish! But I'm not going to." Rick stood up and crossed his arms. "Want to know why?"

The man shivered, like he realized he had just messed with someone he didn't want to mess with.

"Because I just got this shirt, and I don't want to have to get a new one because I spilled your blood all over this one." Rick hopped off the man and kicked him in the side. The man rolled onto his stomach and held his side with his hands, groaning. "Now fuck off!" Rick watched as the man got to his feet and ran away. Rick looked at the blade in his hand and pushed a switch on the side, the blade retracted into the handle. "A switchblade, these are supposed to be illegal." He glanced at the direction the man had run off in. "So… gang member, maybe?" He shrugged and tossed the blade on the ground. He crossed the street when it was safe and started walking down the sidewalk. It didn't take long to get to the bar. It was a small place called the "Dog and Duck"

He walked into the bar; the smell of cigarette smoke was pretty thick. He sat down in front of the bartender and sighed, looking miserable. The bartender was a rather portly looking gentlemen in his forties. "Welcome to the Dog and Duck. Can I get you anything?"

Rick looked around the bar, there was a pool table in the corner and on the other side of the room were two pinball machines, one was Star Trek and the other appeared to be Sin City. There were a few people besides him in the bar, closest to him was a young man that looked a couple years younger than himselfand was sipping a strawberry and mango margarita. He had baggy, dark clothes and shaggy black hair, with a focused look on his face. Rick sighed and shrugged. "Long Island with coke."

"Sounds like someone wants to get hammered," The young man next to him said, looking at Rick with slightly crossed eyes.

"Yeah, pretty much." Rick sighed and looked at the table as the bartender began to prepare the drink.

"You're not a regular here, what's your name?"

Rick looked at the young man who was holding out a hand. He shook it. "Rick Taylor,"

"My name is Jamie Kayge." He saluted and winked and went back to sipping his drink. He looked at Rick, clearly he wanted to socialize.

"Jamie Kayge?" The name "Johnny Cage" instantly came to mind, he dismissed this as a coincidence.

"Yup," Jamie looked Rick up and down, his eyebrows rising. "You seem pretty pissed off." He leaned towards Rick, he seemed to be a little drunk. "Wanna talk about it?"

Rick glanced at the bar as his drink was set down. He grabbed it and started drinking. He looked at the table while he did so, he kind of wanted to talk about it, but he couldn't tell the whole truth. "Sure,"

"Oh, I love stories!" Jamie seemed rather excited and smiled.

Rick recoiled, he was obviously a very childish drunk. "I'm here to get to the festival. Trying to cool off cause my wife is pregnant and I don't know how to deal with it. Then when I got here I realized my arch nemesis is here and now I don't know how to handle that either."

"You're a super hero?" Jamie sat up and looked curious, only to loosen up and smile. "Nah, just kidding, I know what you mean." He took a long sip from his drink, it was almost completely gone. "So who is this guy you don't like and why don't you like him?"

Rick looked at the window to his left, away from Jamie, trying to figure out how to phrase things to get this off his chest. He looked back to Jamie and tilted his drink to get an especially large gulp out of it. "His name is West. He used to be my teacher, but he quit after some legal troubles came up. He kind of screwed over me and my wife before we married."

"That sucks, you couldn't get him back cause he quit, I take?" Jamie paused as he realized his drink was gone and pointed at his drink to get it refilled. The bartender grabbed it and began to make another margarita.

"He quit the day after he screwed us over, I don't want to get into details but to say I would have sued him up the ass wouldn't have cut it." Rick could already feel a slight buzz in his head from the alcohol as he continued to sip on his drink.

Jamie grabbed a clear glass next to where his margarita was and drank from it. It was clearly water. "That sucks even more." He looked with crossed eyes around the room. "So why can't you handle your wife being pregnant? Aren't you supposed to celebrate?"

"I'm nervous," Rick watched Jamie with slight amusement. It was like watching a child trying to sit still. "I don't think I'm ready to be a father." He sighed. "What if I fuck up and screw the kid over for life? It'll be my fault!"

Jamie paused and looked at Rick with as serious an expression as he could manage with blurred vision. "Rick, you have to realize, that's just a natural part of being a parent. You will make some mistakes, but the fact that you care shows you have the child's best interest at heart. That is the most important part of being a parent." He grabbed his drink as it was set down on the table and pulled it towards him so he could sip from it some more. "If you don't care, you WILL fuck up and screw the kid over."

Rick paused, looking at Jamie, he smiled a bit. This drunk's words made him feel a little better.

"If you do care, you will do whatever is best for them, even if that means changing who you are to protect them." Jamie lifted his glass into the air. "So whatever you do, just make sure you learn from your fuck ups." He set the glass down to the table and started spinning on his chair.

Rick laughed a bit as he watched. "Thanks,"

"No problem!" Jamie said, only to cut off and fall off his seat. "I drank too much sweet deliciousness!" He stuck his hand in the air as he spoke. "I'm not going to be ordering any more drinks. Can I have my receipt please?" His voice was somewhat high pitched and very uneven.

Rick burst out laughing at Jamie and sighed, sipping his drink, which he was over half done with. He was really starting to feel the buzz. "So what about you? You just like getting hammered for no reason?"

Jamie stumbled to his feet and sat back on his seat, pushing his already half finished drink away and grabbing his glass of water. "No, I drink to forget the pain of something I forge-Oh, now I remember again." He hung his head and looked sad, his bottom lip trembled and he looked at Rick with watery eyes.

Rick shrugged. "So tell me about it." He wobbled in his seat a bit as he finished his drink and tapped it to have it refilled. Jamie paused as he noticed the receipt on the bar next to him and pulled out his wallet, putting about thirty dollars in cash on the table. The bartender quickly grabbed it and then attended to Rick's drink.

"Well, I was born a small black girl in Wisconsin, Mississippi-Oh wait, not that." Jamie paused, looking away as Rick snickered and put his hand over his mouth. Jamie sighed and shook a little bit. "Hey, did it recently get a little eviler in here?"

Rick paused, thinking for a second; he was already drunk. "That was probably me. I'm not evil, but I make the room feel eviler." Obviously he was getting a little careless.

Jamie nodded. "Oh, of course." He cracked his knuckles. "I'm having girl troubles." He sighed and looked at the ground. "My girlfriend thinks I'm cheating on her with my best friend."

Rick blinked. "Are you?"

"No," Jamie looked defensive. "I'd never sleep with Amy. I love her to death, but I think of her more as a little sister than I do a girlfriend." He glanced at his drink, obviously he wanted a little more. He turned his drunken attention back to Rick. "In fact, I'm the first person she came out of the closet too."

"Then why does your girlfriend think a lesbian would be sleeping with you?" Rick looked genuinely confused as he took another drink.

"Cause she's not a lesbian. She's bisexual." Jamie sighed, looking depressed. "I don't want to stop hanging out with one just because the other doesn't like it. Every morning till I was seventeen I'd look out my window and wave to Amy." He put a hand over his face. "Then I was on a date. We crossed paths with Amy and I said hello." He closed his eyes. "After a few minutes I heard her scream. And.." He looked away from Rick and leaned against the bar. "Someone was attacking her and I ended up…" His voice choked and he couldn't say any more.

"You killed them, didn't you?" Rick looked at Jamie with a rather sympathetic view. "You never forget your first kill." The words came to his mind in an instant and his eyes widened when he realized he said it out loud. "So I've heard. Not too hard to believe."

"She would have been killed if I didn't. None of the police are charging me with anything. Saying what I did was in defense of others." His voice shook as he spoke. "And it made everything with my girlfriend worse."

Rick out the window and pushed his drink away. "Check please," He muttered. "It's not that I don't understand how you feel." He looked at Jamie in the eyes. "But you're being a fucking pussy over this."

Jamie looked surprised.

"We've all got blood on our hands in one way or another." Rick stood up and stumbled slightly. "Some have it more literally than others. We all have secrets, we all have something about us we want to deny because we're scared." He winced, feeling as though he was going to throw up. "But we have to accept the consequences of our choices." He smirked, a dark glint in his semi-crossed eyes. "Besides, if it happened again... do you really mean to tell me you wouldn't do the exact same thing?"

Jamie looked at the ground and nodded. "I'd do it... every time."

Rick sat down again, wobbling on the spot. "Then don't regret it. I sure as hell don't." He paused, looking at the bartender, who was rubbing Jamie's glass and had been doing so for about three minutes despite the glass being quite clean. "And I mean that as I don't regret you killing to protect somebody else." His voice slurred slightly and he fell over. "I'm drunk!"

Jamie laughed, looking at Rick. "I can see that." He didn't sound much more sober than Rick.

Rick payed his bill and left the bar with Jamie, the two of them in an obvious drunken stupor. Rick actually ended up throwing up on the way home. It turned out Jamie lived in the same neighborhood Rick was staying in and not too far off from one another. They agreed to meet at the music festival the next day after they had sobered up. Rick stumbled into John's home. It had been two hours since he had left.

"Hello John, Jason, Freddy and Al!" Rick said cheerfully as he fell over onto the pile of beanbags in front of the game consoles.

"Oh look! He's drunk, let's write on him when he passes out." Freddy grinned evilly when he spoke.

Rick pushed himself up and looked up at the card table in front of him where the guys were eating pizza. "We're meeting a drunk I met at the bar at the festival. Be nice to him." Rick lay his head down in the bean bags and closed his eyes. "I'm gonna have a really bad hangover when I wake up."

"I'll go get the pens!" Jason stood up as Rick dozed off.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: A Demon's Mask

"Rickkyyy," The deep voice echoed in Rick's mind. He rolled over, his head hurt. "Wake up. Wake up. Wake up." Rick groaned and felt around for a pillow, his eyes closed. His hands ran across a familiar bone surface. "Rick, you look like an idiot, wake up!" Rick pulled the mask towards him and propped his head against it. "I am not a pillow! Wake the fuck up!"

The words shouted in his mind and he let out a soft moan of annoyance. "Five more minutes."

"I am not an alarm clock, you prick!" Rick peeked his eye open, he looked through the hollow eyes of the Terror Mask. "Hello there, Sleeping Ugly."

Rick sat up and leaned away from the mask. He looked around. He was on his bed. He held his head and groaned again. "My head," He fell backwards, his shoulders hitting the ground so he was only half on the inflatable bed.

"Well, are you happy now that you've made a total fool of yourself?" The mask condescended.

Rick looked at his arm and noted the numerous colors on his arms. There was a rainbow, a unicorn and what looked like crudely drawn breasts on his arms and hands. There also appeared to be the words "Freddy was here." in red pen that was obviously supposed to be blood.

"I'm gonna kill them." Rick got to his feet and held his head. His mouth was completely dry. He staggered out of his room and into the bathroom across the hall. He turned on the sink and began drinking from the faucet. He felt awful. "I wish I had drunk some water at that bar last night."

"You know Rick, this all could have been avoided if John hadn't interrupted us!"

Rick paused, trying to remember what the Terror Mask was talking about. He wasn't getting anything but vague memories and all of a sudden West in his blue vest popped in his mind. He sank to his knee's as the faucet ran. "Oh yeah," He sounded very disappointed and stood up, bending over onto the sink and sucking up the water. He couldn't care less that it was warm. He looked up at his reflection over the sink and wasn't surprised to see numerous doodles across his face. This included a fake moustache and a black spot over his eye. He paused as he looked at his arm. It was completely devoid of hair. He ran a hand across it and looked at his left arm, which did have hair on it. "Those fuckers shaved me." He looked at his reflection and felt half his chin. They had shaved off the right half of his goatee. "Those dicks,"

"You should know by now that getting drunk in front of your friends is a bad idea."

Rick sighed. "I really should, shouldn't I?"

"Shut the fuck up Rick! I'm trying to sleep." John said out loud.

"You're a dick, John!"

"Freddy and Jason did it! Now go bother them."

Rick sighed and held his head. The noise was bothering him, but at least the Terror Mask's words didn't make his head hurt. He kept drinking from the faucet for about ten minutes on and off. He got as ready as he could and, to his annoyance, had to shave his goatee completely to make his facial hair even. After a shower that made him realize he had been written on with permanent markers and waking up the twins in revenge for writing on him, he and his friends set off for the festival. Rick actually brought his bag with the Terror Mask on it without it having to resort to blackmail. With West in the city, he wanted to be ready in case anything happened... such as the end of the world... again.

He met up with Jamie and his girlfriend, Jessica. He thought they looked like a cute couple, and Jamie appeared to be just as insane sober as he was drunk. "I am having a blast going in and out of your hole!" He said to Jessica, who was standing next to him and looking quite sour.

"Can you keep the sex puns to a minimum?" She said coldly.

Jamie frowned, looking at her. "Still pissed at me for ditching you?"

"Yes,"

"And would it make any difference if I said that I did it to save Amy from being raped and possibly killed and buried in a ditch somewhere?"

She crossed her arms and looked at him. It was pretty obvious she didn't believe him. Rick raised his eyebrow as he watched the affair. "She's kind of a cunt, isn't she? Why is she even at a music festival if she isn't a music fan?" Rick glanced at the mask on his backpack, he actually agreed with its assessment. He thought they LOOKED cute together, but personality wise, there was little to appreciate.

Jamie looked at the mask on Rick's bag, he leaned towards it and looked at it. "Where'd you get this creepy looking thing?"

"Uuuhh," Rick's eyes widened as he realized he had no excuse prepared for that question. His mind raced as he tried to think of a story.

"Tell him the truth!" The mask said cheerfully. "He won't believe you and then it will give you more time to think of a lie."

"I found him in a mansion full of monsters and lost my soul to him and saved the world and my wife... then the multiverse. I decided to keep him since he's a dangerous artifact that can destroy the world and I don't want others to use him to do that." Rick paused as he realized how stupid that sounded. "But mostly he's a present from a friend who shall remain nameless and is also an artist."

Jamie looked at Rick with a baffled expression. "You just make that up on the fly?"

Rick laughed nervously. "Yes, I did."

Jamie blinked; still looking clueless. "That sounded kind of stupid."

Rick shrugged. "The best part was the sex afterwards."

"I still remember that, the sound of you two fucking in the back seat of your car afterwards. It was very distinct from the casual sex you have now. Like I said, I have it down to a science now."

"Okay then, good luck with refining that story." Jamie laughed a bit and looked at Jessica, who was looking far from happy. The crowd around them was thick and there was a massive stage a couple dozen meters away. Goat Whore was preparing to do a song.

"Yes, this is my kind of music." Rick said, only to pause as Jamie was putting his face in his palm as Jessica attempted to talk to him. He looked at her through his fingers and then up at the evening sky. He closed his eyes as she shouted at him while the music started. He was clearly not paying attention.

"You know what?" Jamie put his left hand on her shoulder. "I'm really sorry... but fuck you. I am really sorry that I wasted months trying to make this work. I realize that I'm a moron and I was trying to save a sinking ship. Fuck you." He turned away and walked off.

Rick looked at Jessica, who was fuming. "Well now that he's realized he's an idiot, I can tell you that me and a friend of mine think you're a cunt. Both of us."

"Aw, Rick, I appreciate you telling her she's a cunt on my behalf." Rick ignored the mask and squeezed his way through the crowd, trying to find Jamie. He looked disappointed as he looked through the sea of heads. He wasn't going to find him. He'd have to wait till Jamie went home to talk to him.

Jamie managed to shove his way through the crowd and into the parking lot. He paused and groaned as he realized he didn't drive here himself. "Fuck, I'll have to walk." He didn't want to hitch a ride with anyone and he was only a few miles away. He looked at his shoes and started walking east. "I can't believe I'm so fucking stupid."

He ended up hoofing two miles, taking the back routes by the less populated stores. He passed by a pair of younger males that were standing in front of a shabby looking pharmacy. One of them paused and looked at Jamie. He seemed to recognize him. He whispered to his companion and the two ran off down the road. After twenty minutes of walking, Jamie managed to get by the river. He sighed and walked on the stone bridge. A couple cars drove by as he crossed the road. It was only a half a dozen meters long. Two of the cars stopped by, Jamie turned around to look at the two cars. One was a rusty looking red camry, one of the older models. The other was a truck. There was at least five people in the back. The doors of the vehicle opened and he found himself surrounded by ten people. He felt nervous, there was no way so many people would stop by the road like this to give him a hug or a bundt cake.

"Told you it was him." He was fairly certain they were all males but it was dark and he couldn't see their faces too well.

Jamie stepped back and raised his hands. "Whoa! I hate to seem like the clueless victim, but who the fuck are you guys?"

The closest one spoke. His voice indicated he was pretty young, probably Jamie's age, who was twenty-three. "We are your executioner."

"Two weeks ago you killed one of our guys and we stick together, ya know?" It was a male in the back. Jamie could see they were all pulling out weapons. Mostly knives, one pulled out a gun. He stepped back, his eyes widened and fear coursed through him. He looked around as they cornered him at the wall of the bridge. He looked below to see the river below. It had a fairly strong flow, but it may be his only chance to survive. He put a hand on the rail and the closest one moved in, jamming a knife in his stomach. He grit his teeth and yelled from the pain. He leaned over the railing and let himself fall into the river. "Dammit! Follow him!" The group got back into their vehicles, one went to one side of the river and the other vehicle crossed to the other side.

Jamie crashed into the rapids below, screaming out loud as he fell. He tried to swim but his body wasn't moving anywhere near as fast as it usually would. He bobbed up and down the surface of the water as he struggled almost helplessly against the current. He was pushed down the river for well over three minutes, he spotted the truck running by. He was difficult to spot in the waters, so that may give him a chance. His mind raced as he collided with a fallen tree and managed to grip onto it. He slowly pulled himself to the shore and watched as the truck passed. It would only take them a short amount of time to realize he wasn't in the river any more. He crawled onto the ground and held his stomach, which was bleeding profusely onto the ground. He was surprised he hadn't bled to death yet.

He looked to his right, in the direction of the river's flow. He felt something, something was close to him and whatever it was, it was hardly friendly. There was an abandoned building overgrown by the tree's and wildlife. It was almost hidden from the view of the road farther away from the river. These men weren't following any paved roads to track him down. The building looked like it used to be some kind of wood-working facility. Jamie collapsed on the shore, he was sure he was going to die.

"Ooooohhh, interesting" He heard a woman's voice. He looked around, pushing himself up to his hands and knee's with one hand on his bleeding stomach. "I've never been the type to believe in Fate, but this is the kind of luck that hardly ever happens."

"Where are you?" He couldn't tell where the sound was coming from. "Please help me,"

"I will, just come into the building. I'm in there."

He stumbled to his feet and slowly made his way to the building. He couldn't move very fast and he saw the camry pass by the other side of the river. It was driving upstream. They realized he had gotten out of the river. "Better hurry, boy." He pushed himself, willing himself to move faster. He reached the door, still holding his stomach with his left hand, he pushed it open. He fell onto the ground.

"You're getting closer, just come forward a bit." This woman sounded like a harmless vixen, but despite that there was something about her voice that made him feel like he was hearing the voice of Satan himself. He didn't care, he was desperate, he didn't want to die. He pulled himself forwards and looked at a hole in the ground of the abandoned building. The wooden floor was coating with muck.

"I'm in here, just reach in and grab me." He reached into the hole in the ground, his fingers wrapped around a smooth, unfamiliar surface. "There! You've got it boy." He lifted something light out of the hole and looked at it. Even in the shadows of the evening he could make out the white surface of a mask. It had rather delicate features with indentations across it. He watched with amazement as the blood on his body defied gravity and sucked up, into the mask. "I am your ticket to salvation."

He couldn't believe his eyes. This wasn't possible. "I don't understand." His voice shook as he could feel the life draining out of him.

"Child, please, you need to be a little more humble. Do you want my help? Do you want to live?"

Jamie rolled over, onto his back, looking at the ceiling. "I don't want to die."

"Then trust me, put me on. I can save you. Believe in me." As he heard her voice, he lifted the mask and slid it over his face. He closed his eyes, only for them to widen as pain shot across his whole body. It was life every muscle was screaming at once. He screamed out loud and felt new life, he rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself onto all fours he watched with terror and confusion as his flesh seemed to swell on his body. His stomach wound sealed up and he screamed like he never had before. His bones cracked loudly as they rearranged under his flesh, which was swelling up as muscles bulged and tightened across his body. His legs stretched out and snapped, tearing apart his shoes as his feet completely changed their structure.

"Relax little boy."

He felt further pain as something pierced his skull at multiple points. He grabbed at the mask and tried to pull it off as his fingernails thickened and formed into pointy-white claws. "Make it fucking stop!" He screamed out loud, his mind so overwhelmed with pain, he had no idea what was going on.

His spine lengthened slightly and his chest expanded enough to tear apart his shirt. He watched as glowing red lines burned up his body, searing his flesh and he continued to scream. The pain eased and his body seemed to cool down. He rolled onto his stomach as he heard the slamming of car doors in the distance. There was a broken mirror in the room. He looked at his reflection in it. The indentations within the mask were glowing blood red. He looked like a monster. His feet had become massive talon-like hands. He stood up and tried to straighten his back, but his new bone structure wouldn't allow it. He walked towards the mirror, looking with horrified eyes at his new reflection. "What have you done to me?" His head hadn't changed size much. His muscles, while much larger, were sleek and his build seemed to lean more towards speed. His hands had become clawed versions of themselves and sat comfortably on the ground. He seemed to be more like a four legged beast than a bipedal one. The lines across his body glowed red and seemed to shine more brightly for a second. He stepped back, feeling awkward on all fours.

"I have made us one,"

Jamie shook his head. "No, this is a nightmare. It's all just a bad dream." He crouched low and held his head with one of his massive clawed hands. "What the fuck is going on here?"

One of the men could be heard shouting. "He's in the building, I can see the blood!"

Jamie seemed to snap back to reality and his eyes widened. "They're gonna kill me." He said.

"Wrong," The woman's voice said. "I'm starving and I need some exercise."

Jamie looked up at the entrance, lowering his hand. "What are you talking abo-" He couldn't speak all of a sudden as his body froze up. The mask on his face burned and his flesh burst open, revealing patches of sickly, glowing red energy across his body. Short, boney spikes burst from his flesh along his spine and the mask mutated, stretching further around his head. His doubled in size an he felt the muscles in his stomach compress and it gave him a more feminine appearance. He practically screamed in horror in his own head as his body moved freely of his control. He tried to fight the movements, but it was like he had been trapped inside his own skull. The color left his vision, save for the blood on the ground and some glowing blue lines on the ground. "I'll make this quick. After all, I just need to wet my new claws a bit."

One of the men walked through the building. He took one look at the thing that was Jamie and his eyes widened in fear. Jamie felt his body move forwards and grabbed the man, pulling him into the building, he screamed and struggled as this mask held him with just one massive clawed hand. She debated what to do with him and grabbed him with both hands. She applied pressure and the markings on her body glowed bright, they channeled up the hands and the man seemed to swell, veins popping against his skull. He burst like a balloon in a shower of blood. "Oopsie, he popped too soon."

She cackled out loud and burst out of the wooden wall, she turned, looking at the 9 thugs left. Jamie screamed inside his own head as he felt his body burn white hot and the lines across his body flashed green. She dashed past them before they could even react, moving so quickly. She stood in front of the Camry and jammed a clawed hand into the hood of the vehicle, destroying the engine. She pulled out her claws. She bent low and lifted the vehicle, grunting as she did so and flipping it over. She looked at the thugs, who were slowly turning around and laughed. She jumped on top of the truck and the green on her body flashed red and the men finished turning around. Their bodies seemed to return to a normal speed. She brought down her fists on the top of the vehicle and electricity coursed across the truck. It vibrated, even with Jamie standing on it. The tires popped and melted while the metal scorched and smoke issued from under the hood. She jumped off the truck and the group started to run.

"I'm not done yet," She ran forwards on all fours and swiped a claw past three of them, dismembering their bodies to pieces, blood staining the earth. She grabbed one of them that was close with her left foot and crushed his torso and head in the palm of her foot. She cut the rest to pieces with her claws in a matter of seconds and the earth was soaked with their blood, the air ripe with their screams.

Jamie could feel his body burning, he wanted to scream, but he couldn't. He felt his body deflate, he reverted to how he was when he first put the mask on. He toppled over, groaning. His mind was racing. "What just happened?" He finally had control of himself again.

"I took over your body, I wanted to test drive my newest toy." The woman's voice laughed darkly, Jamie curled into as much of a ball as he could manage in reaction.

"I wanna go home." He was wet with blood and he couldn't stand it. It was like some vivid nightmare.

The woman's voice echoed in his mind. "You're not going home any time soon Jamie."

Jamie shivered, closing his eyes, at least the color had come back to his vision. "How do you know my name? Who are you? What are you?"

The voice sighed, sounding exasperated. "I'm wrapped inside every crevice of your mind. Where do you think I learned your name? I learned it from your head." Jamie curled more tightly at her words. "And my name... I am called the Nightmare Mask." She scoffed at him. "Now get up and get moving. We don't want to be found here."

Jamie uncurled, she had a point. He couldn't be caught here. He began running south on his hind legs, moving with surprising speed.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Insert awesome title here

Rick sat on one of the bean bags in the living room next to Al. The folding card table was leaned against the wall. Rick had the remote and he was channel flipping. "Damn, we have to wait a full three hours before we can go back to the festival." He sighed. "Why can't it be a 24-hour three day festival?"

Al looked at Rick and blinked. "Because that would be seventy-two hours?"

Rick smirked and handed Al the remote so he could rub his arm with a sponge, trying to rub the faded writing off his arm. He wasn't paying attention, but his bag was leaning against his bean bag chair with the Terror Mask tied to it. He had been noticeably tense, even while at the festival and was a little concerned since Jamie hadn't come home yet.

"A video taken by a witness shows the brutal murder of ten boys by some kind of monster." Rick looked up, it was the local news and a woman was explaining the situation on the screen. "The video is too graphic to show on television, but it is available on the company website." The woman said. She looked at an officer next to her. "What exactly is your take on this?"

He shrugged. "I have no clue, I have honestly never seen anything like this before in my life. The thing is, even in the darkness, the video is very clear and it is extremely compelling. At first we didn't know what to think, we investigated the scene and found the bodies. We believe we have tissue samples from this thing. Our only guess right now is that it's some type of new species of animal. If it really did do what we saw, then this thing is extremely dangerous and must be captured or killed at all costs." He sighed. "But we are still conducting an investigation, so the area is off limits until we finish."

Rick looked at Al with a serious look. "Get me a computer, I want to see this monster."

Al cringed a bit as Rick looked at him. He'd been getting progressively less jumpy as he spent more time with Rick, like he was getting used to the feeling. "What? Right now?"

Rick nodded and Al got up and retrieved a laptop. They went to the appropriate website and clicked on the video, having to type in a year of birth to get access.

"I want to see!" The mask said and Rick grabbed his back and put it in his lap. His eyes widened as he saw a shower of blood. There was screams as within a matter of seconds, all 9 males were cut to pieces and crushed alive. Rick's eyes narrowed with interest. The camera shook, it was behind some plants and two vehicles. One was toppled over and the other vehicle looked like it had been heavily scorched.

"Oh my god!" Al covered his mouth and ran into the kitchen. The sound of him puking in the sink could be heard. Rick didn't seem phased by the intense violence. The thing crouched low and the camera turned away as the one holding the camera ran up a hill. In the background, the sound of crying could be heard in the background, along with the heavy breathing of the one holding the camera. He stopped and the camera pointed at the ground. Vomit hit the ground and the video cut off. It was clearly from the perspective of someone's phone.

"Play it again!" The mask sounded excited. "Pity that guy couldn't have gotten a shot of the things front."

Rick looked at it. "What is that thing?"

"I have absolutely no clue, but I can't wait to meet it." He could hear the bloodlust in its voice. "Put me on! I want to find it right now!" It was obviously pent up from seeing real blood for the first time in two years.

Rick watched as Al held his stomach, looking disgusted. "What the fuck was that?"

"I'm not sure, but I don't think it's a good idea to go to that festival anymore." He watched the television as he noted the area the murders had occurred in.

"Come on! Put me on! Put me on! Put me on! Blood; Rick! REAL FUCKING BLOOD!" It was begging. Clearly this "baby" wanted his "bottle" right now.

"Okay," He said.

"What?!" The mask sounded as though someone had just handed him a freshly severed head as a present.

"I'll do it," He said, leaning back and looking at the laptop.

"YES! YES! YES! YES!" The mask cheered out loud.

"But not here."

"YOU SUCK!"

"What are you talking about, Rick?" Al looked confused and belched, bending over. "Oooohhh,"

Rick paused, he had forgotten Al was standing so close. "I'm talking about... changing my clothes?"

Al looked unimpressed. "You're a really shitty liar." He walked past Rick and into the hallway. "But I hardly care because I'm too busy being sick. That made Two Girls, One Cup look like "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood"." Rick gripped his shirt and looked at it. He was wearing one of his favorite shirts. He probably should change clothes to something he didn't mind getting destroyed when he put on the mask.

It didn't take long to find out where the incident had occurred. He hid in the brush and looked at the people below, there were police cars around the area. He was wearing a white sleeveless shirt and shorts that reached to his knees. The mask was pressed against his stomach by the lining of his shorts, he didn't see the point in bringing anything else. "So what do we do? That place may contain the only clues telling where that thing went."

"Put me on, I'll scare em' off."

Rick paused and looked at his stomach, where the mask was. "I am not letting you kill them."

The mask laughed a bit. "I wasn't going to kill them."

Rick remained silent and looked at the outline of the mask..

"Maybe a little maiming... okay, I was going to kill them." The mask sighed.

The two paused as screaming shot through the air. The officers all moved into the abandoned mill.

"Must be a Corrupted place." Rick said. "Bet this is the area West is staying in." He pulled the mask out from under his shirt and took off his glasses, he put them in his pocket. "Hopefully I'm not rusty." He put the mask over his face as he heard gunshots and more screaming. "I wonder why they weren't att-" He cut off and started screaming out loud as he hunched over, his muscles writhing under his skin. He fell over and punched the ground. "I can't believe I FORGOT how much this HURT!"

The mask laughed out loud in his mind. "Quit crying you pussy!" Rick grit his teeth and breathed loudly, trying to not to scream as his muscles swelled painfully, his body turning into that of a lumbering brute of pure muscle. His shirt tore apart from his increase in size as his chest swelled from the increase in muscle. His bones even growing in size, he was at least ten feet or more in height. Rick got back to his feet and he felt a surge, growling a bit under the mask. "Free again!" The mask shouted through Rick, laughing out loud.

Rick raised his right arm and looked at the grizzled muscle, he flexed it and smiled. He felt pretty good, his heart raced with excitement as it hit him, all that power he had was back in his hands. He couldn't wait to start using it. He ran down, through the brush. Most of the officers had gone into the building. The screams stopped. He jumped over a car and an officer on the radio screamed, cringing as the masked brute jumped over his head. Rick stopped and looked at the officer. "I'd run if I were you."

The officer jumped into the car and drove in one direction, he crashed into a tree, obviously not looking where he was going. The other two outside pulled out their guns and pointed them at Rick.

"Freeze... thing!" The officer recoiled as he looked at Rick's glowing yellow eyes and stepped backwards several steps. Rick walked towards him and the officer stepped back as the titan of muscle approached him. He knelt down to the officer's height and grabbed the gun between two fingers, pulling it out of the man's grip and crushing it between his fingers. He dropped the crushed hunk of metal in front of the officer, who visibly wet himself and passed out. Rick stood up and looked at the last officer, who was hiding behind the car, peeking at Rick.

More screams and gunshots came from the building, a body was tossed out a nearby window. Rick ran forwards, and towards the entrance of the old mill. It was quite large, he stopped by the edge of the river, which had the closest entrance. The masks eyes glowed and Rick lost the color in his vision, only seeing the blood red stains on the ground that led into the mill and splattered all over the grounds in front of the building. His vision returned to normal and he ran into the building. "Something crawled out of the river."

"Probably just one of the kids… or what's left of them anyway." The mask clearly was dismissing this as unimportant. "By now the Corrupted may have selected a new Overlord, but something doesn't feel right. I don't think the Corrupted's influence is here." It paused. "No, there's something here… but it's not the Corrupted."

Rick looked at the small entrance and then at the hole in the wall next to it, splintered wood was on the ground. It was just about his size, but it was a touch short. He knelt low as he walked through the hole. He looked at the bloodstains on the walls and . The bottom of the floor had splintered wood, something had burst open from the ground. An officer was laying on the ground, he had been impaled by a chunk of wood. The area was open and had a set of stairs on the edge of the room. There was virtually nothing in the building, but its original purpose was still obvious.

"Wait a minute," The mask sniffed the air. "Waaaiit a minute!"

"What is it?"

"Slightest hint of madness." It inhaled the air. "Terror and confusion, uncontrollable panic." He paused. "That's Jamie, he was here."

"Are you serious?" Rick ran along the edge of the room to the left, passing by two mangled bodies. He glanced at a particularly strange stain on the ground around the edge of the hole in the ground, rather close to the hole in the wall. The remains looked like someone had tried to pick them up. Most of it was just burst in fragments of bone and flesh across the ground. Rick shivered a bit, wondering what could have caused that.

"Yeah, positive. Only he seems to be about half way between insanity and rationality like that. Seems he may have tilted a little more towards madness though." It took in the air once more. "And something else, blood lust and aggression." He paused. "Smells pretty nice, it probably killed him and ate him."

Rick sighed, his heart sinking slightly. "Poor Jamie," He ran up the stairs and took a right onto the second floor railings. Screams and gunshots issued from the top-most floor. He ran down the rails, the wood creaking loudly under him. It was obvious that with his increased weight, the ground was in danger of giving.

"Eh, he was probably going to fuck up his life anyway." The railing covered the perimeter of the room and reached a door against one of the walls. He ducked low and backed up, he rammed forwards, bursting through the small door and taking out part of the wall. It was the only way he could fit through at his size.

The ground creaked loudly and bent low as he stepped with care on the rotting wood. There was something growing on the wall, it was a massive white organ that seemed to be slowly issuing puss. It looked like it was slowly spreading across the wall, comfortably sitting in the back right corner of the room. It jiggled slightly and a flap opened up near the top of this cocoon-like thing. It spewed out a yellow mist and Rick stepped away from it, covering his face. "Ugh, smells like crap."

"I think you should break it." The mask said.

Rick moved towards it and punched into the soft white surface, his fist sank in and his skin burned. He pulled out his fist and saw a bloody chunk had been taken out of his forearm. He shook off the puss and watched as the white thing burst open, its contents splattering on the ground. A small crouched figure was inside. It was clearly chewing on the missing piece of Rick's arm. It stood up, it slightly resembled a little girl. It was covered in the puss and wiped off the stuff to reveal a rather old and soggy dress. Clearly it had once been human. It ran forwards, swinging mutated arms with blades of bone extending past its wrists, running with clawed feet. Rick ran back at it and tackled it to the ground. He sat on its chest and put his fists together and pounded down on its skull twice. He then grabbed its head, lifting it and slamming it down, crushing it entirely. He got to his feet and looked at the cocoon. "What is that thing?"

"Think of it like this. Anything that gets sucked into the cocoon gets turned into a beautiful, flesh devouring Butterfly. Then the Butterfly comes out and the cocoon sucks in anything else stupid enough to come near it."

Rick looked around. "So West has nothing to do with this?"

"I'd recognize the stink of the Corrupted a mile away. This ain't them. Don't know what it is though, I just want to eat it."

Rick ran out of the room and down the hallway, having to break the doors open so he could fit through, often breaking apart parts of the wall. He ducked low in the hallway, feeling cramped. "So does this mean that thing we saw on the video was a "Butterfly"?"

"I don't think so. I think it might be something more upper class."

"Do you think it's still here?" He burst through another door and looked around a large room, fresh blood was splattered on the walls, which crawled towards Rick. The walls were lined with numerous cocoons, there was at least twenty. Some were sticking out of the ground, some were nestled comfortably in the corners, some were hanging five feet above the ground. In the center of the room, there was a creature hunched over. It was chewing on a few corpses. Three had been piled neatly on the ground. Whatever it was, it was quite large. It was a little bigger than Rick.

It seemed to have more than one set of legs and arms, like a contorted compilation of bodies. The dominant head seemed more like two skulls half way fused together to make an exceptionally wide mouth. It had thick, strong legs and muscular arms with loose limbs hanging from its body. Some of them waved around, the extra arm sticking out of his right forearm was gripping the waist of a corpse. It sank its teeth around the skull and its mouth widened like a snake. It pulled the body up, sliding it into its thickening mouth and throat. The bones of the corpse snapped and it swallowed the corpse whole. The creature grew in size, its muscles bulging. It gained a few inches and the face of the corpse it had just eaten pressed out of the back of its right shoulder.

"Hey look, dinner and a show."

Rick rolled his eyes and charged at the beast. He felt his adrenaline pumping already and he sped up, ramming into the creature and knocking it backwards. It stumbled back as he passed by and stopped. He turned towards it and moved in close, his fists glowing orange, he pulled his right fist back and slammed it into the creatures rib cage from the side. A circle of energy was released and cuts appeared across its mutated flesh. It staggered to the side and as Rick moved in to strike with his other fist, it grabbed him by the head and threw him to the side. Rick tried to get to his feet, only for the creature to slam down its main arms on top of him. He pushed himself to his hands and knees and the creature kicked him in the stomach.

He rolled away and got to his feet. He dashed around it as it slowly tried to follow him. He jumped onto the creatures back and gripped one of its heads. He planted a foot on the monsters back and pulled, the head came loose and Rick fell backwards as the bones tore off.

The creature howled in agony and reached at the missing head. Rick ran forwards and jumped onto its back again, he planted his feet on its lower back and grabbed the throat with his left hand and proceeded to beat the creature with its own skull.

"You know, I didn't even think this was physically possible, but here it is." The mask commented.

Rick pounded mercilessly at its main head. With each blow it staggered and finally fell to its knees. Rick raised the head and slammed it down with both hands and crushed it against the monsters main head, it caved in and Rick ended up crushing its brains. He lifted his hands and stood up, he felt the familiar surge that went through him at victory. "YEEAH!" He shouted, but his victory was short lived as the wooden ground began to give below him.

The wood crunched loudly beneath their weight and the floor collapsed, he fell to the floor below, crashing through the moldy wood and into the basement below, he crash-landed on another cocoon, which burst below him. He felt something crunch beneath him. He stood up, covered in the puss; he wiped it off and looked at the crushed remains of one of the "butterflies".

He looked around and his eyes widened. "Oh fuck…"

Every inch of wall had a cocoon on it. The ground had them and some of them appeared to be growing on top of each other. The basement was a large rectangle shaped room. There were no visible stairs, but a large pile of cocoons led up to a small crack in the slime that obviously seemed to be a handle. It was possible that they had covered the stairs. The things around him moved and jiggled, vibrating, a hissing sound cut through the air.

"Seems a little unfair having us against all of them."

Rick sighed. "Let me guess, it's unfair for them?"

The mask stayed silent for a few seconds while many of the cocoons burst open. "Couldn't let me reach the punch-line, could you?"

Well, there it is, the latest chapter…. I spent my last two classes writing down ideas for what I want to happen in the story. I think I have something that will work. Hope ya like it.


	5. Chapter 5

Me: *jumps from out of view with a bag over my head and a chainsaw in each hand* I am the Biggy Man! *starts singing* Run from me if you can, I am the Biggy Man. You do not stand a chance, don't fucking need a plan. *throats* I am the Biggy Man!

Rick (wearing the mask): You can't be the Biggy Man

Me: Why the fuck not?

Terror Mask: Cause you have a cunt.

Me: Actually, I was castrated as a child. I'm using chainsaws to compensate.

Rick: You have skin.

Me: I had surgery recently.

Terror Mask: You're a fucking idiot!

Me: You can't prove that.

This is a skit I thought of, it originally takes place between me and a friend, but I think it's a little funnier if it's Rick and the Mask instead. I don't know why, but I always love portraying myself as a hyper active idiot with a short attention spa-OH! SHINY RED BALL! *runs out into traffic after it*

Chapter 5: The Inquisition

Jamie stood hunched over, every few seconds he would attempt to straighten up and stand upright, he'd fail each time and fall onto all fours. His body's new anatomy just didn't allow for standing upright. He was on the rooftops of the city. Specifically he was on top of an apartment building. The busy street below was actually filled with viewers, many were taking pictures on their cell phones of what they perceived as a monster on the roof top. Jamie ducked low, below the edge of the roof so no one could see him.

"Dammit, I can't take this! Get the fuck off of me!" He jumped up to his hind legs and grabbed onto the mask. It stuck to his face like glue, he could feel the skin of his face pulling outwards. Every time he pulled on it, his arms would jerk and he was forced to let go. He put his hands down to the ground and trailed back and forth on the roof, trying to figure out what to do. Nothing was working.

"I'm not coming off anytime soon, now get us out of here, someone is going to try to come up here." The Nightmare Mask sounded far from excited.

It was as if it was on cue, there was police cars that were driving by the road, sirens blaring. Many officers were getting out of the cars and fully suited up. Many had bullet proof shields. Jamie looked over the edge as they ran into the building he was on the roof of. "What?"

"Damn! Get moving boy!" The mask shouted.

Jamie backed away from the edge of the roof. "But... why are there so many of them?" It looked like the whole force had decided to pay him a visit.

"Fuck if I know, get moving!"

Jamie looked around and ran, hunched over as he moved on his hind legs. He moved fairly quickly, but it was obvious from his bone structure that he just wasn't supposed to be running like this. He ran from one side of the building to the other and jumped, landing on the next roof building. He leaned forwards upon landing and fell onto his face. "Dammit! I fucking hate this!"

"Run like a dog; you idiot! You've got four legs, use them!"

Jamie pushed himself onto all fours and tried running on all fours. It felt awkward to say the least, but the increase in speed was dramatic. He stumbled in mid-run as he got half-way across the roof and fell down, the increase in speed causing him to slide forwards several feet. He got back up and started running again. He made it to the edge of the building and skidded to a halt. He looked down at the street and then across the street. There was a massive sky-scraper. There was no way he'd be able to jump to the roof of it.

"Jump!"

"You have got to be kidding." Jamie stepped away from the edge.

"Do it!"

He reluctantly stepped back and ran, at the edge of the roof he crouched low and leaped forwards. He easily covered from one end of the street to another and sank his front and back claws into the wall of the building. He hung there, breathing heavily. He looked down and his vision span a little. He looked backwards at the team coming out and onto the roof he had been on originally. "Holy shit, I made it. It's like I'm Spiderman." He let out a nervous laugh. "I'm Spiderman!"

"Spiderman is gay!"

Jamie scowled immediately. "Spiderman's not gay... you're gay."

"So how long did you stay up last night to think up that brilliant retort?" She was obviously being sarcastic.

"Up yours; cunt!"

Jamie scaled the walls, he seemed a little better at this and it was extremely obvious that he was ever so slightly aping the aforementioned superhero as he moved on the wall. "Spiderman! Spiderman! Friendly neighborhood Spiderman! Can he swing... from a thread? Take a look... overhead. Hey there! There goes your Spiderman." He sang as he moved around the corner of the building as shots were fired at him. He moved a little faster, passing by windows and getting stares. Some people took pictures with their phones. Jamie grit his teeth and felt another pang of nervousness and fear. "I have to get out of here."

"I told you coming to downtown was a horrible idea." She said. "Listen, let's bargain."

Jamie stopped, looking to his left, his eyes looking at the rim of the mask. "What are you talking about?"

"I saved your life." She said coolly. "Aren't you a little grateful for that?"

Jamie kept moving and jumped away from the wall, he landed on all fours and skidded slightly on the roof of another building. He ran and began traveling from roof to roof, stumbling here and there. "I guess so,"

"Well then why don't you thank me with a favor?"

Jamie leaped from one building to another, jumping over another street. He landed in a roll this time, but it was awkward. He skidded and had to get back to his feet. He hadn't done a very good job landing. He tried to think. "I guess I could do something for you. Will it get you off me?"

She would have been smiling if she could. "Well, yes. I just have a few chores I need to get done. See; I'm a business woman. I don't go back on my word cause that's just bad for business. It's all about practicality."

Jamie kept running, continuing to stumble here and there, he started adjusting how he ran, trying to get the hang of moving on all fours. "So what do you want from me?"

"Head south,"

Jamie felt the mildest tug in one direction and he looked at it. He assumed this was south and started moving that way, jumping over another street, landing in a skid and falling over. He got up and kept moving. He was actually moving a little faster than some of the cars. Clearly he could run very fast. "Great, you're easy to please."

She laughed softly. "Well, we'll see if you can please a girl like me soon enough."

Jamie felt the shivers at her voice. He didn't trust her, not even a little bit. But; he wanted her off and if doing a few things for her would get her off, he was going to do it. "So what exactly are you supposed to be?"

She sounded a little insulted. "Focus on the task, Jamie."

He didn't like this answer. "I see, so I'll just have to define you by what I can figure out about you myself." He thought to himself. "You're a symbiotic entity of some kind."

"Oh, look at you, the great detective putting his sleuthing skills to work."

This was true, Jamie did have interest in becoming a detective. He ignored her, remembering she said he learned his name from his own head. "Specifically you sink into the skull, wrapping and merging into the brain. You amplify your hosts abilities... somehow." He couldn't really think of much more. "And you want something done. So I was probably just at the right place at the right time from your perspective."

She mocked him. "So smart and so handsome. Gonna solve this mystery any time soon?"

"I also know I fucking hate you." He added coldly. "And you're a psychopathic bitch... which is why I hate you." He paused, but he kept moving. "You like killing things."

"Nothing better than a good slaughter on a Sunday afternoon."

"Fuck; will you PLEASE shut up?" Jamie's mind was racing. He couldn't focus any more than he could run on all fours, but at least he was stumbling a little bit less as he experimented with how he moved. "And you can take over the host for a while. But I can't take it too long."

"Don't worry, I'll buff you up in no time. Just keep on heading south."

He sighed, giving up for now. He couldn't think clearly enough to get anything out of the information he had, not that he had a lot to make any conclusions. "What do you want me to do, anyway?"

"You'll see Jamie. I want it to be a surprise."

"Fuck me,"

Rick cracked his shoulders and stretched his muscles as he walked out of the mill. He had a lot of blood on him. "That was a great warm-up." The mask said cheerfully. "Nothing but small fry in there though." It paused. "You missed this, didn't you?"

"Yeah-No! Wait," Rick stuttered for a few seconds, this was his guilty pleasure and he hated admitting it. On some level the time passed allowed him to convince himself of the lie, that he didn't enjoy this, a little easier. "Let's focus on the job." The blood was quickly absorbing into his skin.

"Okay fine, keep lying to yourself. You'll snap eventually."

"The job!" Rick repeated.

"Right, right," The mask sounded disappointed. They walked around the grounds of the mill, looking at the wounds. One of the cars was missing. Obviously the three remaining officers ran away after Rick had terrified them.

"So where do you think that thing went?" Rick paused as he heard something coming from the nearest car that had crashed into the tree. He ripped the door off the vehicle and grabbed the walkie in the vehicle, being careful not to crush it.

"All units to the downtown area, sightings of the unidentified creature indicate it is traveling south from 56th and Maine. So far there have been no casualties, but the creature is extremely fast." Rick paused and pressed the button cautiously, genuinely concerned he would break it. "I didn't copy all of that, did you just say the creature is heading south from downtown? Seriously? The one from the abandoned mill?" Rick wasn't entirely sure how to phrase the question, but he was sure sometimes they would be informal on the radio.

"Yes, the same one. Please get to the downtown area immediately. What car is this?" Rick set the piece down and smirked under the mask.

"Looks like we lucked out Rick-O." A transparent purple ring of tentacles opened up next to Rick and he walked into it. He crossed his arms and braced himself. He really wasn't a fan of using portals, but he needed to get downtown and fast. He sank down into it and found himself in a stream of light, he was tossed around, unable to control how he span around the portal. He fell out the other side and yelled out loud as he fell at least thirty feet and crash landed on an asphalt road. He formed a crater in the asphalt and groaned, pushing himself up and getting to his feet. "I forgot how shitty the landings for portals are too."

He looked around, he could see the downtown area in the distance. He was in a forest area with wide plains. "Fuck, you steered us off by miles. It'll take forever to get over there." Rick walked off the road and started running into the brush of the tree's. He didn't want to be seen.

The mask paused, it sniffed the air. "No, wait! I smell it again." He growled and shivered on Rick's face. "Ooohh it smells sooo good. That familiar bloodlust. But there's that hint of madness again." It paused. "Why is Jamie's smell still on that thing?"

Rick shrugged. "Do you think that's the thing that killed the guys on that video?"

"Almost positive, I caught faint hints of it when we were walking up but once we got inside, it got pretty strong." Rick felt goosebumps form on his arm as the Mask took in the air. "I think I can track it." He seemed to growl in Rick's mind, who was getting a little disturbed.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you reacting this way?"

"Hey! I can enjoy a smell. Besides, don't you go a little primal when you catch Jen's perfume? Last I remember, one time she took you shopping with her and when she was buying that perfume, you caught a big whiff of it and couldn't get off her till you managed to get your fuck on in the back seat of your car. Didn't even bother to get out of the damn parking lot! So ask yourself who's weirder; you or me?" Rick's face burned red under the mask, he didn't want to talk about that. "Which way is it again?"

He felt a twinge in one direction, down the road. "That way," Rick started running in the proper direction.

Jamie was stopped in front of a fence. He had traveled quite far already. Around him was mostly an open field. He could see the city from where he stood. The green summer grass blew in the wind. He looked at the sign on the fence. It read "No Trespassing". He didn't seem too keen on moving.

"Jamie, what are you doing?"

"I don't know where to go now."

"Over the fence dumbass."

"But is says "No Trespassing" I don't want to get arrested."

"We have the police chasing after us. They're probably going to catch up to us in a few minutes." The mask was starting to sound frustrated. She clearly just wanted to hit him over the head.

Jamie looked around, there was a road behind him. He reluctantly hopped the fence. He was already starting to get the hang of running without falling over. The ground was uneven, there were a lot of hills in this area. He ran over the top of a particularly large one and down the other side. The uneven ground would probably make him harder to spot. He spotted an abandoned house in the distance. The land was huge and uneven. Trees surrounded most of the fence and littered the grounds. Jamie paused, skidding to a halt as he felt something. Something was here. The Nightmare Mask shivered a bit. "Do you feel that?"

Jamie nodded. "Yeah... what is it?" His voice shook a bit.

"The fabric of reality is thin here. It allows infestation of inhuman entities. Specifically this is a nest for the Corrupted. Now get in the house, we'll clear it out and I'll get one of my chores done. Then we can go to the next place."

Jamie shivered and against every instinct and impulse, he ran towards the house, scaling the distance in under a minute. "What's a Corrupted?"

She paused. "They are indistinct, many angled ones. Timeless and eternal, beyond comprehension. Imprisoned in the Abyss, amongst many other prisoners. The place that leaks suffering to the worlds around it. Genocide, natural disasters, war, so on and so forth. Forever and eternally clawing fruitlessly at reality to devour everything alive. And without me; they will seriously fuck you up."

Jamie looked at the ground as he walked up the steps. "You don't sound very interested in them."

"They're just one more obstacle in my way. It makes no difference to me who or what they are. Should they live, should they die, I don't honestly care. As long as they get out of my way."

Jamie pushed the door open. The house looked pretty large, it was probably more like a mansion. He walked into the hall. It was massive to say the least. He walked in, he felt something, like something was moving to his left. He looked and nothing was there but a boarded up door. The room had massive steps in front of the door that went to the second floor. They curled elegantly upwards to form a "C" shape of steps. Jamie walked to the center of the room and paused as he put his left hand over something soft. It squeaked and he looked down. It was a teddy bear. He picked it up with his left hand and set it down. "Am I the only one who feels a little suffocated?" He sat down his hind quarters. "It's like there's something big in here."

"That's one of the guardians." She said calmly. "I'd probably start getting ready for a fight."

Jamie jumped and looked around, tense and on guard. The ground started to rumble and the wood below his feet began to creak loudly. "Fight?! Nobody said anything about a fight."

She would have been rolling her eyes if she had her own. "Jamie, what do you think I meant when I said "clean it out"? I meant KILL EVERYTHING INSIDE!"

Jamie's head started to spin. He wasn't a fighter. He was a loser, a geek who played video games and read. He went to comic book conventions and hated sports. He had hidden from the football team in high school more times than could be counted to avoid getting beaten up. His legs wobbled a bit as the realization hit him. "I'm going to die!" The ground in the center of the room started to give and a clawed hand burst out of the ground. It was large enough to crush him. It slammed down next to him and Jamie cringed as something pulled itself up, out of the ground, wood splintering everywhere. "I'm going to die!"

"Shut up and fight! If you don't, you WILL die!"

Jamie shivered as he watched the monster. It pulled itself out of the ground to its waist. It was a black skinned humanoid with a horribly mutated face. The flesh of the right half of its body seemed to be oozing off in chunks, which hung from its body and swayed with its movements. It had razor sharp and thin teeth. All the same, its hand was still as large as Jamie's whole body, possibly a little larger. Its eyes were blood red slits and when it exhaled, smoke issued from it in clouds. Its hair was a mess of thin spikes. It looked next to Jamie. It reached by him with its massive hand and picked up the teddy bear. It lifted the bear to the side and leaned towards the front of the room. It dropped the bear into a cradle and growled soothingly. It then turned its attention back to Jamie and let out a roar.

Under normal circumstances, he probably would have fainted right there and then, but for some reason he seemed to be incapable of losing consciousness at the moment. The thing raised a hand and tried to slam it over him. He ran to the side, the wood crunching loudly under the force of the blow.

"Okay, I'll walk you through this, boy! Wanna live? Do as I say!" Jamie ran straight for the door, which was closed. He jumped to run through it but he bounced back about a foot before he hit the actual door. He looked back at the monster, which was twisting around at the waist to look at him.

"Assume escape is impossible! It probably is!" Jamie stepped back, looking at the creature. It raised a hand and tried to crush him again. He jumped to the side as the wood was crushed underneath.

"The easiest way to kill most opponents is to destroy the heart or brain. But keep an eye out for any other exploitable weak spots." Jamie felt a stroke of mad bravery. He jumped onto the hand and ran up the arm. The creature tried to smack him off its arm with his other hand, but it only hit raw skin.

"Stay alert! Never drop your guard and use your speed to your advantage." He stopped at he shoulder and swung at its neck with his left claws and then his right. Each time, blood sprayed out from the wound. The creature cried out and grabbed him, he struggled against its grip and it threw him into a wall. He must have hit a beam of wood because the wall gave, but he didn't break through. He fell to the ground and dented the wood on impact.

"Suck up the pain, there's gonna be a lot of it." Jamie slowly pushed himself to his feet, he was hurt, an open wound was on his back and his elbows and knees were scraped open. He stood on all fours and lay low to the ground as the creature slammed its fists into the floor as if in frustration, making two new craters in the wood. He dashed forwards and ran up its right arm. The creature looked concerned and tried to smack him again, missing. He leaped forwards, pushing his left claw first, he jammed it into the beasts neck. He swung around with his claws still in the flesh, slicing open the front of the creatures throat. He jumped up to the monsters cheek as it held one hand to its neck. He sank his front and back claws into its skin to climb up, he was already covered in blood that was absorbing into his skin. He pulled his left hand back and sank his claws into the monsters left eye. He moved his arm around as the monster screamed out in agony. It slapped its face with him on it. He was crushed against the creatures face and as it pulled its hands away, he fell to the ground, dazed. The beast slammed its fist down onto his body, he cried out as he was pushed into the wood and into the foundation below. It pulled its fist away and growled at him, clearly furious for what damage had been done to it. It dripped blood onto his body from its neck and eye.

"When an opponent is angry, they don't fight as well. Anger them and they'll use more energy to attack, but it will also be easier to dodge. This allows you to wear down opponents more quickly." Jamie rolled to his feet and ran away from the creature. He scaled the stairs to the second floor and began running around the rim of the room. He felt so sore and every muscle screamed as he moved. The humanoid bared its teeth and leaned forwards, slamming its hand against the wall and crushing part of the second floor. Jamie skidded to a halt, the way in front of him was blocked by the hand. He backed up and the creature slammed its other hand behind him, blocking both paths.

"My power comes from the blood you shed, in fact, you can drain blood from enemies by sinking both front claws into them and letting me do the rest." Jamie ran forwards and jumped onto the hand of the creature. He pulled his hands back and jammed them both into the flesh of the creatures hand, he dug his arms in as deep as he could. Agony surged through him and he screamed along with the monster as the markings on his body burned and his flesh tore open to reveal glowing patches of energy which flamed outwards. The patches of flesh sealed up and he felt strangely rejuvenated, his body was healed. His wounds were gone and his muscles no longer ached. He pulled his arms out of the creatures hand as it roared and pulled its hand away from the wall. Jamie ran up the arm again and it put its other hand at the base of its shoulder. It moved its hand down its arm as Jamie moved and he jumped over it. He wasn't even really thinking any more as his heart pumped at lightning speed. He felt like he was running off pure adrenaline. He jumped up and onto the face. He clung to the right cheek and climbed up to its remaining eye. He took in a deep breath and pushed his claws through the right eye, along with his entire upper torso. He cut through the flesh and reached through a thick and durable layer of flesh. Underneath he felt something soft. He grabbed it and began to pull. It tore with ease and he ripped out a portion of the monsters brain through its eye. It screamed and writhed as Jamie's head pulled out of the torn and damaged flesh. It collapsed, blood pooling on the ground. He shivered and fell off its face, his body twitching on the ground from what had just happened. His eyes were wide with shock and all he could hear was the growls of the creature. He felt a surge through his body and let out a sound that was sort of like a laugh. He didn't fully comprehend what he had just done. He pushed himself to all fours and his legs wobbled.

"Very good! You deserve a sticker with a smiley face on it." The Nightmare Mask sounded approving. "This will work out better than I originally thought. Now we just have to get you to stop being a fucking pussy." He felt his legs give way and he fell over, still stunned.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The walls were coated with blood in the house, screaming of beasts wrent the air and bones crunched loudly. Corpses were everywhere; cut open, dismembered, decapitated, disemboweled and cut to pieces. The air was thick with the smell of death. The front door burst open and Rick walked in, it was already cloudy outside and it was obvious a summer thunderstorm was on its way. It almost seemed to be a bad omen.

"Getting closer; It's here. I can feel it." The Terror Mask sounded tense. Rick walked in and looked around. Through the boarded windows, he could see the devastation.

"What the fuck happened?" Rick asked slowly.

They looked at the corpses. Many of them looked like very familiar beasts. The remains of what both Rick and the Mask could positively identify as soldiers of the Corrupted. "Looks like something hates the Corrupted as much as us. Obviously this thing believes in kicking someone while they're down."

Bones crunched softly through the walls and an inhuman howl of agony cut through the air. The sound of a voice, a human voice softly beat through the walls. Rick couldn't make out the words. "Someone's here?" He ran forwards, around the largest corpse in the center of the room. Rick looked at the black humanoid, its throat was sliced open and its eyes were gouged open. He could only see the monster waist up, but he could swear that some of its brain had been pulled out of its right eye. He ran up the stairs, not sure what to think about the way the monster had been killed. The mask would lead him right to it though.

"Ugh! This is the most disgusting, fowl and inhuman thing I've ever had to do." Jamie shook his right claw, trying to get the punctured lungs of a monster off. They fell to the ground with a squelch.

"Alright Jamie, I think this place is cleared out." The Nightmare Mask sounded cheerful. "Now for step two." She grew hot on Jamie's face and he grit his teeth from the pain as his flesh burst open to reveal patches of flaming red energy. The lines on his body glowed brightly and he felt that strange disconnect between himself and his body, once again trapped inside his own skull. The mask wrapped further around his head and his body doubled in size.

"Wait! What are you doing? There's no monsters left!" Jamie could only ask her through thought, he couldn't even move his lips to ask out loud. He felt his hands get warm and grow hot. Jamie wanted to blow on his hands and then to scream as it felt like the flesh of his hands was being burnt off. He was surprised the flesh wasn't peeling off and charring on the spot.

Nightmare raised her claws as the lines of red spread out and encompassed the whole hand. The color changed and became black, and the bone claws glowed a solid purple. She swung at the air and, to Jamie's surprise, the air seemed to tear open. A black hole in space, just hanging in midair. She stabbed her claws forward and moved, dragging her claw through the air and seemingly cutting open the air. Jamie yelled in his own skull as his hands seemed to grow even hotter. His hands slowly eased back to their normal state and Jamie's body shrank back to its previous state. He fell to his knee's and held his hands in front of him, they still burned, he didn't even feel like he could move them. His hands twitched and he slowly managed to clench them.

"What the fuck was that?!" He fell forwards, onto his stomach, trying to regain his wits about him from the pain. His muscles felt very stiff.

"Just step two." Jamie felt his body involuntarily move onto all fours. He had never experienced her using his body without transforming before. He was surprised. He turned around and got to his hind legs, hunching over. His hands were still tender, but they were quickly getting better. He walked out the door of the room. It was a simple bedroom. He looked back into the room, at the holes in the air. He felt the strongest sensation. Like before, he felt he was being suffocated, but this was much more intense, it was more like he was being crushed. He went down the hallway. He paused, hearing footsteps. He moved into the nearest room, another bedroom. He stood on his hind legs and leaned against the wall as best he could, still unable to straighten up completely.

Rick walked down the hallway. "We're practically on top of it." The mask growled. "Get ready for a fight Ricky boy."

Rick moved with caution, trying to stay silent. He didn't hear anything and this seemed to put him more on edge.

"I smell something funny," The Nightmare Mask seemed interested. "A human... and something else." She wretched. "Gah! It's disgusting!"

Jamie bared his claws and readied himself for a fight, his chest rising and sinking with each nervous breath.

Rick stopped silently by a room. "In there," The dust was thick enough to cushion his footsteps, but not enough to keep the floorboards from creaking beneath him. Rick waited a few seconds. He could see a boarded up window on the opposite wall that lit up the room. He didn't see anything.

"Are you sure?" He thought to the mask.

"Positive,"

Rick walked forward. He passed by Jamie, not seeing him. He looked left and right. Jamie's heart skipped a beat as he saw the behemoth in front of him. He dashed in from behind and jumped onto its back. Rick yelled as Jamie sank his claws just above Rick's collar bone and tried to push them under the rib cage to pull out the heart.. Rick grabbed Jamie by the arms and threw him onto the ground in front of himself. Jamie had already wet his claws, his heart started racing, Rick's right fist glowed with energy and Jamie rolled to the side as Rick hit the ground where he was, a circle of energy was released. The two looked one another in the eyes.

"That's a girl!"

"That's a guy!"

"What?" Jamie asked out loud as he looked the masked brute in the face. "The mask on his face?"

Rick blinked, unable to believe what he was hearing and seeing. "Jamie?"

Jamie recognized that voice and stood on his hind legs, hunching over. "Rick?"

The two stared at one another. The Nightmare Mask grew tense. "Kill them!"

"What?" Jamie stepped back. "No fucking way!"

Rick couldn't hear the Nightmare Mask, but he could hear Jamie. "That thing's alive too?"

The Terror Mask suddenly burst out laughing. "HAH! I can't believe that thing is a girl! Holy fuck!" He calmed down a bit. "Let's straighten things out and figure out what the hells is happening."

He wasn't going to let her push him around now, not when there was someone he knew who appeared to be in the exact same situation as himself. "Rick, what the fuck is going on!?"

Rick sighed, relaxing slightly. "I was hoping you could tell me. You were on the news; you know. Someone caught you on their cell phone, killing a bunch of people."

Jamie looked away from Rick. "I didn't do that, she did." He pointed to the mask on his face. "She can control my body."

Rick crossed his arms. He wasn't surprised by this information. "So where did you get that thing?"

"Thing? Rick; she's a woman. A fucking hot woman that I will likely fuck and give a false phone number just before I leave her apartment and never see her again. Despite the fact that I will lie to her and tell her I'll call her later."

"You're a pig!" Rick snapped.

"Mask..." The Terror Mask corrected.

Rick paused, processing this as he put two and two together and somehow managed to get three. "Wait... how can you?" He broke off and looked at Jamie, who was rubbing one of his thumb claws against one another.

"Found her in an old mill." Jamie pointed to the mask on Rick's face. "And what about him?"

Rick let out a nervous laugh. "Remember what I told you originally at the festival?"

"Yes,"

"It was really simplified, but it was true." He rubbed the back of his neck with his massive hand.

"Jamie, you know that thing I did about three minutes ago?" The Nightmare Mask was starting to get nervous. "We should probably get out of here. Jumping out the window would be the best option. It'll be faster."

Jamie paused. "What are you talking about?"

Rick looked to the side, addressing the Terror Mask. "Can you hear what she's saying to him?"

"Nope,"

"ABANDON SHIP; JAMIE! We need to get out of here! YESTERDAY!"

Jamie looked up at Rick. "I think we should leave." He turned around and jumped out the nearest window, breaking through the wood.

The house began to shake, loose and decayed wood creaking with the movement. Rick looked around, confused and ran for the window Jamie jumped through and bent low in a ram. He burst through the wall and jumped, he fell to the ground and landed in a roll. The ground was shaking and Jamie was already half way across the field.

"Shit! He's fast!" Rick broke into a run, the earth started cracking open around the house. It looked like it was in danger of collapsing into the ground.

"It's like reality is getting put through a damn blender!"

Rick kept sprinting, moving as fast as he could as the ground heaved. A piece of earth swung upwards and Rick was tossed into the air. He yelled out loud and crashed into the grass covered ground. He looked at the house as the wood crumbled. A massive hand slowly pushed its way out of the building. Even the fingers had black glowing chains wrapped around them. The chains glowed red and snapped. The hand alone was easily larger than the whole house. As it pushed upwards, the forearm was visible. The hands fingers had scars across the tips, like its fingernails had been ripped out. More chains became visible as the wrist came into view, these chains also snapping. Finally this hand reached up till the forearm was visible. The hand clenched, bandages wrapped across the gray, wrinkled skin fell off and with it, a chunk of its arm fell off. The bone underneath was visible, from the bottom half of the palm to the bottom of its forearm the exposed tissue hung loosely from the limb. The hand unclenched and pulled back into the wreckage, leaving the chunk of meat to rot in the field. The earth ceased shaking and it started to sprinkle. Rick got to his feet, looking at the cracked earth and the wreckage left of the home.

"What the fuck was that?" Rick walked up to the chunk of flesh, it was pooling blood on the grass, which sucked up Rick's body and absorbed into his skin and into the mask.

"I bet that bitch in Jamie's head will know the answer." Rick nodded, looking where Jamie had run off too. He started running, the meat behind him jiggled and made a loud squelching sound. Rick slid to a halt and turned around, looking at it.

The meat began to peel open and white bones began to form on the flesh. The skin folded around it as the chunk of meat began to move. A tail formed, stretching out. A torso, a head and arms formed slowly as bones formed and cracked. The forming entity quickly became recognizable as a naga-like beast. Its mouth of fangs cracking loudly as teeth pushed out of the gums.

Jamie was bolting down the field, clearly on his way to assist Rick. His limbs stiffened and he stumbled in mid-run, falling forwards. His speed causing him to roll several meters. He held his head as he got to his feet. "What the fuck was that for?!"

"Let them be. We still have other things to do." The Nightmare Mask urged. "My client's fragment will probably kill them anyway."

Jamie tried to move, but his limbs were stiffened by the mask. "Rick could die without our help!"

"Not our concern, Jamie." The Nightmare Mask moved Jamie as he struggled against her. His hands grew warm and she jumped forwards, her left hand first. Their left hand flashed with a purple light and they vanished in the blink of an eye. No sound, no movement, nothing.

Rick didn't even notice what had happened. His attention on the creature. It slithered forwards, hissing at him. It clenched its clawed hands and let out an inhuman scream that chilled the bones.

"Born of suffering and agony. A gorgeous icon of pain." The mask would have been grinning ear to ear if it could. "It's gonna crunch real good."

The creature moved in, its torso was about twice as large as Rick, who cracked his knuckles and stretched his shoulders as he prepared for a fight. The naga slithered low, growling. It dashed forwards and slashed at Rick with its claws. It tore his chest open, blood and meat flying off him. He jumped up and grabbed onto the naga's torso. He brought his fist back as the creature began to fall low from the weight of the muscle, it fell backwards completely as Rick punched it straight in the jaw. Rick got off it and grabbed it by the arm. He flung it over his body and slammed it head first into the ground. The naga's tail swung around wildly and grabbed Rick around the torso, it growled as it strained to lift him and it threw Rick over its own head and into a chunk of earth that had been pushed up from the earthquake.

Rick fell to the ground and got to his feet, undeterred. The naga's eyes flashed and it howled out loud, the noise was incredible. Rick held his hands over his ears and stepped back, into the wall of earth. The creature dived at Rick, it made to slash him with its left claw only for Rick to raise his right hand and grab the naga's hand. He pulled forwards as the creature screamed in surprise, meeting with Rick's glowing left fist, which released a circle of energy on impact. The creature was dazed and Rick grabbed the monsters wrist again and pulled it forwards for another punch to the face. It fell backwards and Rick jumped forwards, putting his fists together and slamming them down onto the naga's chest. The beast howled in pain, Rick felt the bones in its rib cage give from his last blow.

The monster grit its fangs and Rick was grabbed around the middle and lifted into the air and slammed to the ground. Still gripping him, it pulled him into the air and slammed him down again. It repeated this, again and again until it finally flung Rick through the air and let him fly. He yelled as he flew meters and crashed into the grassy plains. He groaned, slowly pushing himself up as the naga made its way over, obviously intent on dealing a killing blow. Rick stumbled a bit, hunched over. As the naga got close, his rib cage burst open. Blood flew from the naga's body to Rick's as his body had changed in a fraction of a second, bones sticking out of his arms, his right leg and his back while the mask was mutated on his face. He shifted back in the same fraction of a second and his wounds were healed. The naga was stunned, holding its head. Rick moved in and jumped pulling his fist back and slamming his fist into its chest. His fist sank into the flesh as the rib cage gave and the creature howled. Rick landed on his feet and the beast retaliated by slashing Rick across the chest with its claws, taking out the chunk of flesh it had removed before. Rick grabbed the naga's arm and flung the creature to the ground. It struggled as Rick planted a foot on the beasts back, still gripping its right arm, he heaved. The flesh began to tear and with a satisfying crack of breaking bones, the arm came off. The monster screamed and Rick lifted the dismembered arm and slammed it down on the skull, crushing it. The beast lay limp and Rick tossed aside the arm.

He looked around, the field was empty. "Jamie?" He asked out loud.

"That wuss ran away!" The mask paused.

"What was that thing that made this thing?" Rick asked out loud, breathing heavily from the fight.

"The Abomination," The mask said coldly. "It's the only monster in the Abyss that can shed flesh to create new creatures."

Rick looked at the wreckage of the house. "What were those chains that snapped on it?"

"They were the chains the Corrupted and the Evil One put on it. When it came to the Abyss, they recognized a threat when they saw one and put their anger for each other aside to chain it up." It sounded concerned. "But no one would be stupid enough to free it. It's very presence causes reality to scream in pain."

Rick rubbed his arms, the rain beating down on him as lightning finally shot through the sky, quickly followed by thunder. "So that mask is tricking Jamie into freeing it?"

"Yes, but why would she want to free it?"

Rick looked to his right, remembering the Terror Mask's motives for freeing the Corrupted. "Revenge?"

The Terror Mask contemplated this, it was possible. "It somehow managed to use the energy it drew when it reached its hand through to this world to snap the chains."

Rick sighed. "We need to find Jamie and now. Stop him..."

"Stop her too... pity, this means my potential fuck-toy is working to release something that can crush the stars." He would have smirked if he could. "So much for her blowin' me."

Rick paused, curious. "How would that even work? Would you face into her and vibrate or something?"

The mask remained silent for a few seconds. "Rick... try not to say anything that fucking stupid ever again."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Hell High School

It was still pouring and the streets were abandoned. Lightning shot over a particularly run down school. Nobody liked to go there. The land was actually fairly small for a school. The logo of the Crazy Cats football team was in the faded artificial grass on the football field, which was heavily worn and live plants had eaten their way through the faux turf. The stands were overgrown with plant life and a car drove by the abandoned building. A blue jay chirped loudly as it perched on a gnarled looking tree. There was actually holes in the wall of the school, many obviously there from age. Jamie's voice was heard first as he appeared in an instant above the stands screaming, roughly twenty feet in the air and crashed through the rusted aluminum and decayed wood. He landed with a thud on the overgrown weeds that littered the ground under the stands.

"... Ow!" Jamie groaned and got to his hind legs, then leaned forwards after instinctively trying to stand up straight. He fell onto all fours and held his head. "What happened?"

"We slipped through a small cut I made in reality." Nightmare sighed. "It's the easiest way to travel instantly through space."

Jamie started walking around, looking at the overgrown school grounds. It looked like it was once a high school. "Wait a minute, I know this place. It's supposed to be haunted. It's just a few miles off where I live." He let out a relieved laugh. "I almost went inside once on a dare. Got scared when I started hearing noises and nearly wet myself leaving." His mind flashed for a second as he remembered what had happened. "Wait! Rick!" He dashed out from under the stands and jumped onto them, only for the rusted metal and aged wood to give. He landed on his feet under the stands. He stood on his hind legs, looking up at where he had come from. "We have to go back."

"Not in my contract to babysit, boy!" Nightmare condescended.

"Contract?! What the fuck are you talking about?" Jamie paused, remembering what she said. "Your Client…." His eyes widened as it clicked. "You're being hired to do something."

"And the great detective finally scores a big one. Too bad it was fucking obvious."

Jamie's mind raced as he thought to himself. "You're a mercenary. You're using me to get your mission done."

"I prefer the term Trader. As I said before, I'm a business woman. Terms like Mercenary tend to discredit me. The fact of the matter is; I trade my services for goods and sometimes services." She sounded like she was annoyed.

"What are you getting for this job?"

The Nightmare Mask paused, considering him. "None of your business."

Jamie growled in frustration. "Well what's the mission?!"

"That is also none of your business."

Jamie sat down, he would have crossed his legs if he could. He only managed to cross his arms. He sat there and the Nightmare Mask paused. "Jamie… what are you doing? Get moving!"

"Fuck you," Jamie said calmly, he looked around the school yard, not sure exactly what he was going to do. He knew he wasn't going to be this "woman's" tool and that was it.

The Nightmare Mask fumed as she eavesdropped on Jamie's thoughts, trying to decide how to go about this. "Jamie, tell me, how do you think I get a mission done when my ride won't cooperate?"

"Hardly relevant," Jamie still sat there, he had no intention of moving. "I'm not going to help you."

"Oh, I think it is relevant. See, I have quite a few methods outside of torture to get one to cooperate whether they want too or not."

His heart skipped several beats at her words and he looked to his side, he couldn't actually look at her.

"Now torture is my favorite, pretty easy to do when you're in someone's head." She giggled softly and spoke with the tone of a child playing with a doll. "Just set off the right lights in the brain."

Jamie grew stiff. He was bracing himself for pain. He ended up being completely right, his body suddenly burned white hot and he jumped to his feet, he rolled around in the grass and grit his teeth as his muscles seized and tightened, he curled inwards and finally grunted in pain.

"Then there's the second favorite."

Jamie had started to push himself to his feet and something started playing over his eyes like a movie. He was behind someone as he heard Amy screaming. He grabbed this shadow from behind and grabbed their throat. He gripped the chin with both hands as they struggled and with a violent jerk, he heard a crack as he cracked the bone. The man kept pulling at his arms and Jamie could see his face looking up at him. He jerked again and snapped the neck completely. The corpse was in his hands, falling limp, he let go and looked up at Amy. She was crying and clearly terrified, some of her clothes had been partially ripped off and she had a bruise forming on her cheek and shoulder. Jamie stepped backwards as the image vanished from over his eyes. Even now, he still hated that memory. He held his head as he remembered the lifeless eyes.

"Third favorite, is manipulating the chemicals in the body to make the host hyper aggressive." She let out a laugh. "But the easiest one by far is just driving the host completely insane. Considering I know everything that goes on in your head. All your memories, your concerns, your dreams. It's so easy to just tear those apart. You break down and you become a violent killer, by the time I'd be done, you'd probably have a hard time telling your thoughts from my voice." Jamie could almost picture her laying on a couch, filing her nonexistent nails while she spoke to him. Batting long eyelashes and smiling at him in a cunning sort of way; confident that victory was hers. He felt his heart sink. She had all the cards and he had nothing. He couldn't bluff his way out, he couldn't hide secrets from her and she'd know what to exploit as she tortured him.

He sat down and looked at the ground. He almost felt like he had already lost. "You have two choices... lose your body for a few hours." She laughed softly and Jamie felt chills go down his spine. "Or lose your mind and your soul to me forever and your body for however long it takes to break you, plus a few hours." Hatred burned in his chest, he clenched his left claw. If only he could get her off. "Which is it going to be?"

The storm was getting quite bad, it whipped across the field with enough force that the tree's bent with the force. Rick was standing a ways away from the ruins of the house. He waited, stretching his arms and taking the time to admire the muscles. Damn, he had missed this. "Done yet?"

"Few more seconds, kid. I just can't believe she managed to cut such a tiny hole in reality. It's fuckin' hard to open up a portal through this." A round set of purple, transparent tentacles appeared, letting off a faint glow. Rick walked through the portal and sank down.

He fell down the portal, this time he wasn't being tossed around as much as he was moving his arms and legs, balancing down the "tube" of purple light. His glowing yellow eyes narrowed as he saw the other side. He tried to flip around so he would land on his feet, but he lost control and went spinning down to the ground, he yelled as he span and crashed through the roof of a building. The shingles on the roof were tattered and worn. The roof didn't stop him as he crashed through one, two, three and finally four floors, crashing into a cement ground for a basement, which crunched loudly under his weight. "Portals... blow!"

Rick pushed himself to his feet as he he pulled himself out of the crunched cement. He looked around. The light from the hole in the roof combined with a window nearby the edgeof the wall showed him a dimly lit room. He was in a basement. Aged metal racks were against the walls, many still had some cleaning supplies in them. He stumbled to his feet and brushed himself off. He was coated in a combination of splinters, dust and powdered concrete. The room was filthy, with mostly older supplies. "Where are we?"

Something creaked loudly overhead and Rick raised his guard as he heard a familiar growl. A head popped out from the hole in the ceiling as a creature dropped down. Rick didn't even give it a change to snarl at him. He knew what it was. He had seen them before and he hadn't forgotten them. They were short monsters with light blue skin and red spots on their bodies. They had a club-like right arm and a crown of bone on their heads. These creatures had mouths full of teeth and often fought in numbers. They were ghasts, though Rick actually didn't know that this was what they were called. Specifically, they were demon ghasts. Rick grabbed it by the skull with his right hand and pulled back. He chucked the skull at the ground and the ghast screamed as it bounced upwards slightly. It groaned and Rick walked over to it as three others jumped down on him. He bent low and grabbed the dazed Ghast by the right arm. He put one foot on its back and it let out a blood curdling howl as flesh and bone tore, with a loud crunching sound, the bone cracked off and blood flowed from the dismembered arm. It lay there, breathing loudly as blood poured from its arm. It let out a soft, desperate groan and died. He turned around and raised his right arm, the ghast squealed before it was hit. Rick slammed the limb down on it, the force knocked it to its feet. The other two ghasts were closing in. One jumped forwards and slashed at Rick with its right arm. Rick retaliated with a sweeping low strike that tossed the ghast at his feet into the air, spinning. The creature screamed in terror, only for Rick to hit the creature with the dismembered arm with such force, the limb snapped in half. The ghast was slammed into its friend, both hitting the brick wall behind them. Rick grabbed the last monster by the head and pointed his elbow upwards. With incredible force he pushed the creatures head down and crushed the body vertically into a pile of broken sinew and bones.

Rick sighed and looked at the stairs. He walked over to the stairs in the corner of the room. He lifted a foot and set it on the old wood. As soon as he stepped up, the wood gave under the weight of what was likely at least 500 pounds of muscle. Rick reacted by driving his fists down and crushing the old wood. He walked forwards and opened the door. He could hardly see. Light eeked into the hallway from a corner that was lit through holes in the windows. He jumped up and pulled himself up to the first floor. He had to smash through the edges of the door with this elbow to give him enough room to get through. He got to his feet, the linoleum managing to hold his weight well enough. The walls had holes in them that revealed red flesh that seemed to be growing around the walls. Shadows moved around the corner and Rick raised his guard.

There was a sound of screaming beasts and breaking wall. Rick looked to his right to notice a metal pipe was in a hole in the wall. He reached in and grabbed the pipe, ripping it out of place and leaning it over his shoulder. "For me? You shouldn't have Ricky."

Rick ignored the mask and ran down the hallway, growls echoed through the halls. He walked towards the lit hallway, it formed a "T" shape, doors were actually all around him, but he couldn't see so there was no use in going into any of them. He stopped as he reached the fork and tossed his weapon casually into the air, catching it. He jumped as he heard pounding. Down the hallway, away from the windows was a set of double doors. They jiggled and soon burst open. Rick and the mask both recognized these monsters on sight. Three horned monsters with skull like faces. Their right arms so long that they dragged behind them as they walked. There were red lines across their muscular chests. Their left arms were more simplistic. Merely clawed, black hands. Their feet were also clawed, they moved slowly, walking towards Rick. One of them stopped and howled out loud.

This seemed to whip any creatures that heard it into a frenzy. Beasts appeared from the shadows Rick had come from and the hallway behind him. He could see the lumbering corpses of the forgotten coming at him from the lit hallway. These were once human, but they had been tainted by the Corrupted and made into mindless beasts. These particular forgotten didn't look familiar. They looked more like they were decomposing on the spot. Flesh seemed to be peeling off their bodies and underneath was exposed tissue that appeared to be swelling to make a rather grizzled body. While their heads were no larger than Rick's bicep alone, they still would be able to do some damage.

More ghasts appeared from the shadowed hallway. They were surrounded. "Today is a good day to kill every living thing you see." The mask laughed malevolently as it grew hot and took over Rick, his muscles tightened and he dropped the pipe while he lost the color in his vision. Bones jutted from his skin, blades forming on his arms and spikes pushing out of his back and out of his right leg, flesh stretching thin across the right half of his chest to reveal the bloody muscle underneath as his body doubled in size. The mask mutated and it turned to the ghasts first, it bent low, charging through them and the force of the charge crushed them with ease, splattering them against the walls. It slid to a stop and ran back to the fork in the hallway. The horned monsters; the demon teratoids, were moving slowly. One got close and charged at the mask, who caught it by the horns. He lifted the creature off its feet in an arc over its body. It threw the teratoid at the Forgotten as they moved forwards. The teratoid crashed into them and the force crushed two of the seven forgotten. It got to its feet, enraged. It actually grabbed a forgotten around the middle and chucked it at the mask. He reacted be swiping a blade up, cutting the forgotten in half at the torso. The blood and organs splattered over their body. It quickly absorbed into the flesh."WHOO! That shit tastes kind of funny." He stumbled slightly and held his head, his voice grew unsteady and his speech started to slur. "Hey, I feel kind of weird Rick, I'm gonna... gonna..." The mask actually released control of Rick's body and he found himself able to control his body, it shrank down to normal size and the bones sank into his body.

Rick paused, tapping the mask on his face. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine!" The mask shouted in an excited tone, but it seemed more childish. "I feel fucking awesome! In fact, I can see color!" Rick felt his head swim a bit and he stumbled backwards. "Yellow looks sooooo weird." He was probably referring to the aged yellow paint on the walls.

Rick paused as he looked at the blood from the creature sucking up his body. "This blood, there's something wrong with it. It's making you high off your ass. Stop drinking!" Rick stepped forwards, his head spinning, he tried to keep focused, but whatever was wrong with the mask appeared to be affecting him slightly too. He bent low and grabbed the pipe.

"Oh! A pipe! I love these, they crunch things... very nicely." The mask said, in a tone that Rick, frankly, wasn't used too. It was like the mask was drunk.

He ran forwards as one of the Teratoids tried to ram him. He stumbled as he ran, his vision starting to swirl slightly. "Fuck, I... feel weird now too." Rick said, his voice changing to concern. "I've never fought while... high... or something." He seemed to have lost his train of thought, but was brought back to earth as the teratoid near the forgotten threw another enemy at him. He was knocked off his feet and into a wall.

"You suck, Rick!" The mask jeered. "Wait, what was going on again?"

Rick grabbed the ankles of the forgotten as it stumbled to its feet. Rick span it around in a circle, the teratoid nearest to him was knocked off its feet. Rick slammed the forgotten on top of the horned beast and the force of the blow tore the forgotten to pieces. The Teratoid was dazed and Rick jumped over it, slamming the pipe over its head, snapping it in half. Rick slammed a fist at the Teratoid and ended up hitting the ground next to its head, unable to navigate properly.

"Rick... umm... can you kill another of those... umm.." The mask seemed to be trying to figure out what it had been saying. "I forgot again." It let out a drunken laugh as Rick tried to focus. He seemed to be able to handle this better than the mask. It seemed a bit like a mix of being high and drunk at the same time.

Rick jumped forwards and rolled as the third teratoid swung its whip like-arm at him. He stumbled slowly to his feet. His vision started to clear up and he felt his head stop spinning. The mask shivered on his face. "WHOA! What happened?! It was like I was you on acid." It shivered again. "Give me more blood! I'm unusually hungry right now." It whistled in his mind, clearly surprised at what happened.

Rick sighed, looking to the side. "That was the problem, the blood on those new things, there's something wrong with it."

The mask was silent as Rick ran at the two teratoids he could see and jumped, his right fist glowing, he landed on the teratoid that had nearly hit him and he punched it in the head, releasing a glowing circle of energy. "Blood I can't have? That's a huge mindfuck." The mask said in an annoyed tone.

Rick kept punching the teratoid in the head, it grabbed him around the throat with its right arm and threw him at the group of forgotten. He ended up crushing one on impact. He got to his feet and was immediately tacked by one of the forgotten, which grabbed him from behind and began chewing at his neck. He grabbed its arms and threw it in front of him so it landed on its back. He stamped his foot down on its skull, crushing it. He grabbed the forgotten nearest to him and raised it in front of him, aiming at the teratoid in the group, he kicked it and it knocked the teratoid into the wall, splattering blood everywhere and crushed the forgotten he fired.

"This is complete bullshit!" The mask said angrily as it looked at the blood that was coating the walls and the ground. "BULLSHIT!"

Rick grabbed around forgotten around the ankles and spun it around on the ground in a circle. It knocked the remaining forgotten back and Rick slammed the forgotten into the ground, breaking it to pieces. He ignored the dazed forgotten and grabbed the teratoid nearest to him. He grabbed its right arm, twisting it around its neck. "Hey, don't feel bad, I have a present for you!" Rick said out loud.

"Oh yeah? What's that?" The mask asked, sounding uninterested.

He pulled with all his might on the arm as it began to cut through the flesh. The teratoid held its arm, trying to pull it away and finally sank a claw into the ground and tried to pull itself forwards. With a satisfying crunch and a shower of blood the creature's head was popped off and into the air about a foot before falling to the ground as the body lay limp. "It's a severed head!"

The mask sounded slightly appreciative. "Thanks, Rick.."

Rick moved over the corpse as the teratoid's blood moved up his body. He grabbed the head and charged at the two teratoids left as the forgotten collapsed behind him, the life leaving their bodies. He jumped upwards and slammed the skull onto the nearest teratoid, it heard a loud cracking of bone puncturing bone and the creature collapsed, moaning in agony as it drew its last breath. The head he held had a broken off horn from the impact. He threw what was left of the skull at the last teratoid, it stumbled back and he ran at it. He made a brutal uppercut to the stomach, he felt the bones of its rib cage cracking underneath his knuckles and he grabbed the creature's head and tossed it onto the ground. He jumped onto it and kept his feet on its back, he grabbed each limb and pulled with his whole body upwards, the creature screamed as blood sprayed from the tearing flesh. "Toodles, prick!" The mask shouted as the arms were ripped off in a shower of blood. Rick dropped the limbs and put his right hand over his chest.

"This is still bullshit!" The mask said stubbornly as the teratoids blood sucked up their body and into their flesh. "Blood I can't drink, what kind of fucked up world is this?!" Obviously this was a new creature that the mask had yet to run into. Which was unusual considering that it had known the Corrupted so long.

"Maybe West made these thing recently?" Rick walked over to the bodies of the forgotten and looked them over. The blood had some silvery tint to it. "Is Jamie here?"

"Should be, don't smell HER though."

Rick looked around. There were doors with numbers on them and he looked through the window on one of them to see abandoned desks and books. "It's a school." He looked around. "Hopefully we can stop those two from releasing the Abomination."

The two paused as they heard screaming of beasts and bones cracking on the upper floors. "That's probably them."

The mask laughed darkly. "And just think, after all this is done, I can probably get a blow job."

Rick sighed, he didn't want to think about that, unfortunately, now that the mask had mentioned it, he was.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Jamie dashed down the hallways, he was right by a filthy window, and the ground was covered with a thick layer of dirt and grime.

The Nightmare Mask cooed softly. "Hey, don't be so pissed off, you made the right decision."

Jamie stayed quiet for a few seconds before responded. "You know what?" He sighed. "I fuckin' hate you."

Six strange looking ghasts burst from a nearby door. They looked more like they were rotting on the spot, they had several patches of healthy looking black skin, but otherwise they were fleshy and blood dripped from their bodies.

"Oh! New challengers…" She spoke with a tone that indicated amusement. "Kill them all!"

Jamie charged at them, only for a loud crunching sound to go off behind the ghasts. A teratoid flew past and out the window, it appeared to have been decapitated and left a nice trail of blood behind it. Rick walked from around the corner, cracking his shoulders as he went. The ghasts were staring in interest. One growled and the creatures split up, half running at Jamie and half going at Rick.

"Hey, they look kind of like the zombies from earlier." Rick noted. "You don't think?"

The mask shushed him. "Quiet kid, I want to see if the same thing happens to her."

Jamie bared his claws and stabbed one of the approaching beasts in the gut. He grabbed the rib cage with his other hand and ripped out a set of organs, likely the stomach and intestines. They splashed onto the ground and sucked up Jamie's body.

"Phew! What the hell?" The Nightmare Mask's indentations shifted color for a second to bright blue. Jamie didn't notice and used his claws to cut the flesh of one of their arms and pulled, putting his foot onto its chest and ripped the limb off. The creature howled in pain and collapsed. Jamie dropped the limb and paused, his head had started to spin, in fact, his vision had gotten blurry. The Nightmare Mask spoke first. "WHOO! I feel like I am tripping fucking balls right now!"

The two of them observed as Jamie stumbled and the mask would have been smirking if he had lips. "Yup, that's what I thought." Rick grabbed one of the approaching ghasts and held him up. The other two ran side by side and Rick kicked the one he was holding into the other two. The ghast he kicked crashed into the wall, putting a hole in it and scattering bits of wall onto the ground. It lay in a bloody heap from impact and lay limp once it hit the ground. The two he had hit while he passed were dazed. Rick walked up, grabbed one with each hand. He forced them to sit down, back to back, and set one foot on one ghasts leg and his other foot on the other ghasts leg. He gripped them both with one hand each by the rib cage, sank his fingers under the bone and wrenched upwards. In a shower of blood and organs, he ripped apart their rib cages simultaneously and their organs fell to the ground. "Double splatterkill!" The mask noted cheerfully. "That needs to be put in the game."

Rick paused, confused. "What?"

"Nevermind," The mask sounded disappointed. "Talking to a brick wall…. Or a fourth wall."

Jamie managed to defeat the last ghast, though he obviously struggled with it. His vision was blurry and he was knocked back a few steps as the ghast hit him with its club-like arm on the shoulder. He stumbled and jumped forwards, tackling the ghast to the ground. He sank his claws into the throat and grabbed the spinal cord. He put his back legs on the hips and pulled with all his might. After a loud cracking of bone, the spinal cord was ripped out of the body with the head still attached. He dropped it as the blood continued to suck up his body.

He stumbled towards Rick, unable to see clearly. "Hi Rick!" His speech was slightly off-level. "How's it going?"

The Nightmare Mask couldn't seem to make heads or tails of what she was seeing. "Wow…. Color…. Kill it!"

"I don't think you can kill colors." Jamie said out loud.

"Looks like they haven't figured it out. She's too blitzed and he's a dumbass." The Terror Mask said in an amused tone. "That's what you get for making friends with the drunks at a bar, they turn out to be idiots."

"I feel really, really weird." Jamie sat down and swayed on the spot. "And I think… there might be something wrong."

"Hey, other mask, stop drinking the blood! It's making you two high." Rick said sternly.

The blood stopped sucking up Jamie's body, not because Rick had told Nightmare to stop, but because there was no blood left. Jamie continued to sway, he looked unnerved. "This bitch can get high? This explains a lot."

"I can't honestly say that I can see straight right now." Nightmare sounded mildly annoyed.

Rick shook his head and tapped his foot. Right now there didn't appear to be much attacking them. He could hear growls in the walls. He heard the echoing of a familiar human voice. "West," Rick clenched his right fist and looked at it. It glowed softly with an orange light that allowed his bones underneath to be seen. The light died down and he tapped his foot with more impatience. He was waiting for Jamie to sober up. He he was obviously experiencing a much more intense trip than Rick had as he actually fell over and just lay on the ground, his left foot twitched slightly. It was likely stronger because his mask had absorbed more blood.

"The world is farting rainbows from awesome." Jamie muttered. "But I really don't want to move right now."

Rick paused. "You don't think that this would mean we can... take that thing off of him... do you?"

"Give it a shot."

Jamie's eyes widened and he jumped to his feet just as Rick crouched next to him. "Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?... If?"

Rick stood up, his annoyed expression hidden beneath the mask. "Jamie, what the FUCK is going on here?!" He grabbed Jamie by the scruff of the neck and pulled him up to his level so they could look at one another face to face. He clearly wasn't interested in being friendly at the moment. "Why is that thing trying to release the Abomination?!"

Jamie paused. "Is that what she's trying to do?" He looked to his left, he actually wasn't as tall as Rick, he was definitely taller than he was before the mask, but not the ten feet or more that Rick was. "I thought she was trying to invent a new type of salsa this whole time."

Rick sighed and dropped Jamie, if the Terror Mask wasn't covering his face, he would have gripped the bridge of his nose. Jamie got to his feet, hunched over to look at Rick. "But seriously, she's a merc. She's being hired to do this."

The Terror Mask and Rick both paused. "She's a mercenary?" The mask asked.

"I'm a Trader, asshole!" She spoke through Jamie and her voice sounded completely different from Jamie's as one would expect. She took over and stretched around Jamie's skull. His muscles swelled and tightened as his body doubled in size. Huge patches of flesh ripped open at his forearms, knee's, the lower left side of his torso and down each side of his spine. They flamed with a blood red energy and despite this change, Jamie still looked ever so slightly more feminine. "And I'm sure as hell not going to let some comedy duo get in my way."

The Terror Mask let out a cold laugh through Rick and he too took over his host. Bones jutted from his skin, pushing out pints of blood with it and his muscles grew. The transformation was quick and the Terror Mask stood over the Nightmare Mask with a good four to five feet in height on her. He cracked his knuckles. "I'd say I'd never hit a woman, but that'd be fucking stupid."

He held his arms apart and his blades extended and he sliced them forwards like scissors. She merely jumped over them and landed on one of his blades. As they pulled back into place, she jumped forwards and her hands glowed red so the bones underneath were visible. She grabbed onto the Terror Masks torso with her feet, which were more like a fusion between talons and a gorilla's hand than a foot. The claws dug into the skin and she planted her palms on the Terror Mask's face. He yelled out loud and she jumped over him, over the spikes on his back and landed in a crouch. The mask held itself with one hand and felt around with its other hand. He pulled away the hand covering itself and there were red palm stains over it. The stains appeared to be fading already. "Can't see," It muttered to itself.

He turned around as he heard Nightmare moving and slammed his fists down to the ground at once. Bones burst from the ground, tearing the floor apart. She jumped over it and the behemoth , she hit the top of the wall behind him and jumped off, landing on the ground behind the Terror Mask. She moved with precision as he blindly turned around and swung a blade just over her head.

He let out a growl of frustration. "Come on bitch, where are you?" He sniffed the air and in an instant he grabbed her around the throat with one hand and put the other hand over the Nightmare Mask. He pulled, only for her to sink her front claws into the arm that was trying to pry her off Jamie. He recoiled and yelled in pain as she sucked some blood out of his arm. "Fucking cunt!" He made an uppercut with a blade and she rolled backwards, dodging the attack.

"Sa' matter? Not fast enough?" She let out a laugh and the Terror Mask cracked Rick's knuckles, starting to get angry. She was much faster than him.

"I will rip you off that prick and cut you in half." He spat at her, at least he could see now. He ran forwards in a ram and she jumped upwards at the last second and gripped the bones coming out of his back. He ended up ramming through a wall and into a classroom, barreling through the desks. He skidded to a halt and reached behind himself, trying to reach her as she stayed comfortably on his back, gripping the bones with her front and back feet. She lifted her left hand and reached between the flesh of the bones. She reached around calmly while the blood sucked up her arm, clearly searching for a specific organ.

Rick growled in pain and jerked slightly, the Terror Mask shouted out in fury. Rick screamed as his rib cage burst open. The Nightmare Mask and Jamie both yelled at the same time as the blood was sucked from their body. They fell off Rick's back as his rib cage moved back into place. The Terror Mask turned around and grabbed her and threw her at the wall. She crashed though the wall, into the hallway and through another wall to a second classroom, even through that wall and finally stopping at another classroom, crashing into the desks and already in the middle of reverting back to normal. The Terror Mask started running towards Jamie, only to shout in frustration as he ran out of time.

Rick regained control of his body as he shrank down to normal size. He looked into the darkness where Jamie was. The cracks in the boarded up windows were blocked out temporarily. Rick looked around in the darkness and when it lifted, the walls were covered in blood and lined with flesh. The shadowed school looked much more like the inside of a human heart than a building. "Fuck! This place is alive!"

Jamie groaned. "I'm sorry Rick, I couldn't stop her." He coughed and pushed himself slowly to his feet. He walked slowly into the light of the hallways and looked at the squishy flesh beneath his claws, rarely putting his feet on actual floor. "What the fuck is going on?"

Rick raised his fists as bubbles of blood formed around them and Jamie stood next to Rick. "Tell that bitch I'm not done with her, after this, I'm taking her skull!" The Terror Mask sounded quite serious, he was obviously already starting to hate her.

Rick ignored the mask as four monsters appeared. Jamie bent low to the ground as the bubbles popped to reveal five massive humanoid creatures called Demon Abhore. They had bulbous, bludgeon-like arms that nearly hit the ground. They lumbered more than they walked and their heads looked strange. They seemed a bit like a snail, stretching out of folds of skin around the neck with two feelers waving around where the mouth should be. Their skin was pitch black with red blotches across their bodies, mostly around the bludgeon that was their right arms.

"What the fuck are these things?" Jamie got to his hind legs, his right arm was actually rather badly hurt from crashing through three walls. This wasn't the only wound he had, he was looking fairly bruised from the impact as well.

Rick only had the cuts in his left arm the Nightmare Mask had left, along with the hole in his back. "They're Corrupted servants. Now let's take em' down!"

"I wasn't done trying to kill your friend yet." Nightmare said with a sigh.

"We are NOT killing Rick!" Jamie scolded.

Rick sighed only for the Terror Mask to unexpectedly talk through him. "Well no shit, prick, we're killing you first."

"We are NOT killing Jamie, the mask, most likely, but not Jamie!" Rick said coldly.

"Ricky, you met him two nights ago at a bar, you're not exactly going to lose it if he dies. It's not like you're best friends... More like friendly acquaintances... through booze."

"Thank you, I know that." Rick noted with a hint of sarcasm in his "thank you".

The Abhore's moved slowly, breathing heavily as they lumbered in. One got close and with a groan, it swung its massive right arm at the two of them. Jamie rolled forwards, under the blow while Rick actually caught the limb. The Abhore pulled backwards and Rick thought he was going to lose grip, only for Jamie to grab its left leg and pull, the creature fell to its feet and Rick slammed the bludgeon onto its face. The creature was dazed. Rick moved over to the creature as it lay on the ground and grabbed the "feelers" on its face. He put a foot on its shoulder and pulled , with surprising ease, the flesh tore while the Mask shouted. "Hey bitch! Check it! I'm gettin' head!" The Terror Mask cackled out loud, obviously he thought this was still funny.

"Oh fuck me," The Nightmare Mask said through Jamie.

"Well, yeah, that's one of the things I'm aiming for." The Terror Mask said to her.

"Fuckin' prick," Jamie ended up jumping up and landing on another Abhore's swinging arm. He moved up its arm and it tried to reach him with its smaller left arm. He grabbed the feelers on the head with his right arm, yanked it upwards and sank his left arm into the flesh of the neck. His claws cut through flesh like a hot knife through butter. The creature howled in pain as Jamie's head tilted from side to side as he felt around. The creature jerked and fell to its knee's and Jamie finally pulled upwards, holding what was obviously the creatures lungs that he crushed in his claws.

"Lung disease is the number one killer of men!" Jamie said cheerfully, clearly wanting to add to the bad jokes. The Abhore he was on collapsed in a heap, blood gushing from the hole it its neck.

"That's not a disease, that's not a man and no it isn't." Rick said as he drove an uppercut into the stomach of the third Abhore.

"Fuck you!" Jamie snapped as he rolled backwards, the fourth Abhore swung its arm around the ground, releasing some kind of mucus as it did. Jamie moved in only for the Abhore to lift its arm and slam it down on top of Jamie. He collapsed and the Abhore shuffled closer, this was a mistake on its part. Jamie sank his front claws into its leg, it howled in pain as Jamie grit his teeth. His flesh bursting open and glowing as the blood sucked into his claws and into his body. After a few seconds his flesh closed up and the monster fell to its knee's. It shook its head and stumbled backwards, falling onto its back. Jamie jumped up close and got onto its stomach. He sunk his back left claw into the flesh of its muscled stomach, blood didn't seep from the wound, primarily because it was all sucking up Jamie's leg. He gripped the monsters rib cage with his right claw, his fingers sinking under the skin. He pushed with his leg downwards and lifted with his arm. With his other two limbs he began to hack at the flesh and muscle, tearing it and the Abhore writhed on the ground. As the flesh tore and blood pooled onto the ground, Jamie finally managed to pull the rib cage upwards and as he did so, the organs underneath spilled out and onto the ground. It could actually be seen that his back claw had gripped firmly around the creatures spinal cord, it had obviously torn up the intestines along the way.

Rick grabbed the Abhore he was fighting by the collarbone and pounded mercilessly at its stomach, his right hand glowing with an orange light and releasing a small circle of energy with each impact. Obviously Rick was much stronger than Jamie because with each blow the creature cried out in agony. The creature's knee's started to wobble and Rick pulled it down the few inches needed to grab its head. He grabbed both of the feelers with his hand and wrenched backwards, ripping out the head. "Another day, another decapitation." The mask commented. "And another one... and another one." It sighed, sounding very content.

Jamie had gotten to watch Rick pummel the Abhore with nothing more than brute strength, he actually cringed when he watched the creatures bones give under the sheer force Rick had dealt out. "That looked PAINFUL."

Rick walked over to Jamie and sighed, dropping the head he had in his right hand. "Probably was for him."

"Great! Monster fight is over! Let's kill them." The Terror Mask said.

"No! We're not killing him!"

The flesh on the walls seemed to jiggle slightly and something below them moaned out loud.

"The house is alive... kill it for me, will you Jamie?" The Nightmare Mask ordered.

Jamie walked past Rick and sighed. He looked back at Rick, both of their expressions were covered by their respective masks. "Rick... sorry, gotta do this."

Rick shook his head. "Why?"

He let out a nervous laugh. "It's either cooperate or she breaks me and makes me cooperate. That simple."

"Hey, bitch, what's your compensation for this anyway?" The Terror Mask asked out loud.

The Nightmare Mask paused, considering them. She would have been smiling if she could. "A body... my OWN body." She forced Jamie to turn around and they ran down the halls, Rick paused and tailed after her. He quickly lost them in the school, they were just too fast, even with all the monsters.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Mother and Son

Jamie dashed down the halls. Beasts growled throughout the building. He zipped by a pair of ghasts, knocking them over as he charged. He jumped and kept his feet still and he slid down the hall, his feet loosing traction on the blood soaked ground. He slid to a stop at a pair of double doors. He balanced on his front claws and swung around, breaking the doors open by kicking with his back feet. The locks snapped with ease. He walked through. This looked nothing like the rest of the school, well lit and it was very large, it had likely once been a theater or a gymnasium. All evidence of which it used to be was gone though. He turned around, he heard Rick's voice. "How can he keep tailing us?"

He ran into the "room" if it could be called that anymore. There was a pulsating tube of flesh that sunk downwards. It sank down at least fifty feet and the walls around him had bones protecting the walls, it actually resembled a rib cage. In the room was two things worth noting. First, which was the highest, was undeniably a heart. A fully beating heart. It was hanging several feet from the ceiling, protected in a pocket of skin with bars of bone surrounding it. It beat calmly, across from the door, it could be seen just behind the largest column of muscle, which sat in the center of the room. Jamie tilted his head to the side. "Well that's something you don't see every day." But below that was something stranger still. There was an array of tubes and bones, but protected directly by a set of bone columns was a stretching, moving organ. It looked like it was about to pop open. Jamie jumped forwards, into the hole, his claws slid along the walls of flesh. He jumped forwards, landing on the center tube, which jiggled on contact. It stretched down to the bottom where it eventually spread out like the roots of a tree and wrapped around these roots was the strangest moving organ. He jumped as soon as he made contact and landed on a line of flesh connecting two strange looking organs that wobbled as he landed on the thing connecting them. They stayed firmly imbedded in the walls. He kept his claws in the flesh and looked around. "So you want me to just... kill the building?"

"Just cut out all the organs. Save the heart for last, it'll make things easier." Jamie looked down, he was only half way down what could be called the "torso" of the building. He paused as he heard a voice from above.

Rick jumped down from above and landed on the center tube, gripping line of muscle stretching from the tube to the wall. It had numerous lines connecting it to the walls.

"How the fuck can you keep finding me? You can't even keep up with me." Jamie said out loud to Rick.

Rick pointed to the mask on his face. "He can smell her a mile away. It's like putting a bloodhound on the trail."

"That's kind of creepy, dude." The mask on Jamie's face shivered and spoke to Jamie. "That really IS kind of creepy." He nodded. "And she agree's with me."

"Fuck you!" The Terror Mask snapped through Rick.

"I probably could track him too, he's got a damn strong smell to him." The Nightmare Mask shook Jamie's head and he felt his gag reflex tug at his throat just a bit. "It's disgusting,"

Jamie's eye twitched a bit at her controlling his body. "You seem to be doing that more and more without transforming."

"Oh get over it, as long as we're sharing this body and I'm getting more power, I will be able to control it more and more. If this keeps up, we'll be sharing it fifty-fifty."

Shivers went down his spine at her comments. He didn't like that possibility at all. Rick looked up, swinging to the side so he could view the heart of the building. The tube of muscle he was on tightened and swayed back and forth. The lines connected to it were pulling against it. The heart began beating more quickly and the organs around began to pulsate, jiggle and move, especially the bottom-most organ that seemed to be stretching outwards. It almost seemed like there was something inside it.

"Get to cutting Jamie!" The Nightmare Mask ordered. "This place isn't going to let you tear it apart without a fight!"

Jamie nodded and bared his claws and sank them into the tube he was on that was connecting two organs on opposite sides of the "room". He swung backwards and his claws cut with ease, slicing the connecting flesh apart so Jamie dropped down to the ground. The muscles lining the walls tightened and columns of bone jutted out of the walls. They curled around the organs, protecting them. But not the bottom-most organ. It hung in the center of the room, moving and jiggling, it bounced slightly from its movement, the lines holding it attached to the many walls of the "room". Jamie looked around as bubbles of blood began to blow up from the ground. Rick jumped down and landed nearby. He looked around and Jamie paused, it clicked for him. "It's the rib cage." He pointed up at the bones curling around the walls. "This is the torso, the main system of organs." He looked at the heart. "The heart.." He looked at a few different organs, some moving and some not. "Not sure what most of these are." He then looked at the organ closest that continued to bounce and move. "But that's a... womb."

"Focus Jamie!" He heard this from two sources. The Nightmare Mask and Rick at the same time.

There were creatures around them, coming out of the bubbles blowing up from the ground. Many beasts, at least five teratoids, three Abhore's and two very large monsters called "Beast's" that looked like large amphibians. They had voracious appetites and often charged in a blind rage.

"Fuck it, I'll do this myself!" The Nightmare Mask said out loud and grew hot, taking over. Jamie's body shifted to the sleeker, speed demon. His flesh burst open to reveal the flaming patches of energy.

She zipped forwards and jumped straight onto the face of the closest Beast. Rick ran at the nearest Teratoid and made a brutal uppercut to it as one of them cried out and the Abhore's and beasts glowed with a strange and eerie light, what looked like flames seemed to rise from their bodies. Nightmare gripped the bottom of the Beast's jaw with her back feet and held the top of the mouth with her front claws. Her body charged just as the Beast reached for her and it started to scream as electricity crawled over its body. It fell over and writhed on the ground, its mouth still held open. She let go of it and clicked her front claws together in anticipation and reached into the dazed monsters mouth, putting her whole front torso in and holding its mouth open with her back feet again. The creature cried out again, getting to its feet, and with a strange squishing sound it collapsed on the spot and she jumped out of its mouth, with it came the creatures tongue, asophagus and stomach. The Terror Mask almost seemed distracted at watching her make the kill.

"That... was insanely hot. Hey, after we pummel the living shit out of her, do you think she'll date me?"

Rick let out a laugh as he wrestled with his Teratoid and jumped onto its back. He gripped its horns and with two quick jerks from left to right he snapped its neck and it collapsed in a heap. "How would that even work?"

The Terror Mask shrugged and took over Rick, the bones jutting out of his flesh and blood hitting the ground from his transformation in buckets. "Easy, I take over you, she takes over Jen and we fuck in your bodies. How do you think it works?" He made a vicious uppercut with his left extending blade on two Teratoids and swung his arms back and cut the two of them clean in half at the torso's, even snipping their arms in half.

"I am NOT consenting to that." Rick said coldly.

"Who said anything about consent?" The Terror Mask let out a half hearted laugh at his joke and quickly slowed down. "No, but seriously, it's none of your business."

The Nightmare Mask looked at the other Beast, it cried out in rage and charged at her. She jumped up and over its back, jumping clean over it with ease. She looked at the carcass of the first beast and jumped onto it, two Abhore were approaching her. Jamie actually yelled in pain as his body burned like it had been lit on fire. The patches of energy on his body glowed brightly and she sank her claws into the shoulder of the dead Beast. The body glowed red and began to move. It got to its feet, its organs falling completely out of its mouth. The animated carcass charged at the Abhore's knocking them both over. The Nightmare Mask jumped off the back as it charged and it continued to move, still glowing.

The Terror Mask didn't seem amused. "You know, I feel as though that ability should have been mine for some reason. I can't really explain it." He charged at the two Abhore's that had been knocked over. One of the Abhore's swung its arm and knocked Nightmare backwards. She rolled to her feet and charged forwards, she bared the claws on her left hand and made a lengthwise cut on the Abhore's body, going up. The Terror Mask quickly reacted by grabbing the stumbling, bleeding Abhore's mutated right arm and snapped at the Nightmare Mask. "Grab the other half and pull!"

She complied, grabbing the other arm and leg, sinking her clawed feet into the ground and pulled with all her might as the Terror Mask did the same. The seem she had cut in the front of the Abhore's body began to slowly tear open. The tendons snapped and burst as it struggled against the two, only to be torn in half lengthwise. Its organs spilled out of its torso and the two halves of the corpse fell to the ground as the two dropped them. "Pretty hot, huh?" The Terror Mask asked proudly, crossing Rick's arms and shrinking down to normal size and shape while the Nightmare Mask also relinquished control of Jamie's body. "No, not really, just business."

"You're a cunt!" The Terror Mask snapped.

Jamie and Rick moved quickly. The Beast corpse was currently tearing into its living counterpart. It was already looking dazed, but the light from the corpse died out and it fell to the ground in a heap, it was in worse shape than it had been before.

The second Abhore swung his arm at Rick and knocked him sideways, only for him to recieve an uppercut from the whip-like arm of a Teratoid. He landed onthe ground in a heap and quickly got to his feet. His stomach had been torn open, his intestines were visible along with his appendix. He was about to brace himself for the swinging arm of the second Abhore only for Jamie to ram his body into it, tackling it to the ground. He grabbed its head by a feeler and pulled it out, the skin stretching slightly, with a clean swipe from his right claw he cut the head off. He looked at the Teratoid that was charging at Rick and without thinking, he chucked the dismembered head of the Abhore at the Teratoid. It stumbled from the impact as the head crunched against its horns. It fell forwards and pushed itself to its feet, a little confused as to what happened.

"I just threw a skull at someone." Jamie said in disgust. "Eeeww," He ened up not being able to stew in his disgust for long as he was slammed meters to the side from the charging Beast. He hit the bleeding wall. He slid down and shook his head, he looked around as the Beast charged again. He jumped up and landed on its back as it hit the wall. Clearly this creature was not very smart.

"Punch it in the ass!" Rick ordered as he grabbed the Teratoid that had fallen to the ground and swung it along the ground 360 degrees, knocking over the remaining Teratoid and finally threw it into it, crunching both of them against the wall and killing them on impact.

"Eeeww!" Jamie's stomach squirmed at the mere thought. "That's fucking gross dude!"

"You're covered in BLOOD! It doesn't get much more gross than that!" This was true, both of them were covered in blood. Rick looked at the last monster besides what Jamie was standing on. It was an Abhore. He ran at it and braced himself. It swung its mutated right arm at him and he caught it. His feet slid slightly as the Abhore pulled backwards. He gripped the arm and swung it into the Abhore's torso. He pulled back and gripped the black skin, sinking his fingers into it. He slammed it forwards again and moved forwards with the creature as it fell over. Rick used the still attached bludgeon as a weapon and began to crush the torso with its arm, bones crunched loudly on impact as he crushed it. "This is the best day ever!" The Terror Mask commented while Rick brought up the arm and crushed the torso completely into a bloody mess of broken muscle and bone, almost indistiguishable from the fleshy ground beneath them.

Jamie paused as the Beast stirred and he sank his claws instinctively into its back as it began to charge and buck, trying to get its rider off. It got to its hind legs and tried to reach him. He quickly crawled onto its chest and made a vertical swipe with his back left foot, tearing open the skin on its stomach. Rick paused as he heard the familiar squishing of organs as they fell out of the Beasts open stomach. It fell to the side, blood pouring from its gut. It moaned as it tried to move, only to close its eyes and die.

Jamie was still attached to its side, his claws firmly wrapped around the rib cage and into the skin of the corpse. "I want to go home now." He muttered while shivering slightly.

"Hey! Human!" The Nightmare Mask paused, shaking Jamie's head as she grasped for the words. "Rick!"

Rick paused, walking up to Jamie, who was still clinging firmly to the body. "What?"

"Would you like to trade masks? My host is a pussy and watching you kill like that. You're a natural." She shifted from side to side and tried to pry Jamie out of the corpse, currently she was failing.

"Hands off bitch! He's mine!" The Terror Mask snapped before Rick could even tell her no. "This is MY human! MINE!" He pressed their thumb against their chest. "I put in the time for him, he's mine!" Obviously the Terror Mask was a little protective of such an ideal host and didn't like the idea of anyone taking Rick from him. Then there was the fact that Jamie was obviously not as experienced as Rick. "Go get your own killer!"

The Nightmare Mask sighed and finally managed to pry Jamie's stiff fingers out of the body. She jumped off the carcass and Jamie remained still as blood sucked into his skin. "I would be happy to help you find someone else to lead around by the nose." Jamie sounded like he was ready to puke.

"Oh shut the fuck up, Jamie!"

All four of them paused as the room began to rumble, the muscles tightening again and moving around, layers of flesh shifting about. The womb in the center seemed much more lively than before, the bouncing continued and the suspending lines of muscle holding it were starting to tear as the thing inside pushed outwards. What was clearly a hand stretched out the lining of the uterus, the skin was wearing thin and it seemed that soon whatever was inside would break out.

Rick paused and looked at the ground, the muscles below his feet shifted and his eyes widened and he rolled to the side as a blade of bone burst from the floor, it sank back into the ground. Jamie stepped back and didn't notice the muscles parting beside him. A blade popped out of the ground and tore his side open. He yelped and began moving quickly. The blade that attacked him sank back into the ground and as Jamie ran, blades popped out of the ground below his feet and quickly sank back into the flesh and muscle. As they pushed out, several pints of blood came with it.

Rick immediately began to run as well. He jumped onto the wall and grabbed onto a loose line of muscle and hung there. He looked down at Jamie and smirked, thinking he was safe. He felt a slight tug from the loose muscle he was holding onto and looked at the wall. A blade of bone burst from the parting tendons and impaled him through the stomach. He hung on the blade, seeing spots in his vision as the blade sank back into the wall with him still on it. It pulled out of his body and he fell to the ground. He landed with a sloshy thud on his back, covered in a mixture of his own blood and the blood of his enemies. It sucked up his body and into his skin. He rolled to his stomach and stood up. He paused as Jamie ran his way. He smirked and jumped to the side, landing on Jamie's back as he ran and gripping Jamie's shoulder to keep his balance.

"Giddyup horsie!" Rick shouted as Jamie actually stumbled from the weight and corrected himself in mid-run. He was getting better at this.

"I am not a fucking horse, you dick!" Jamie shouted, but he kept moving, the blades kept jutting out of the ground in an attempt to impale him. His speed however, didn't seem to be too affected by the increase in weight. The size difference between them was much more apparent when one was digging his sneakers into the others back. Rick was clearly larger by at least two feet and several more pounds of muscle. It was a wonder how Jamie could even carry him.

"That's what she said!" The Terror Mask said calmly. "Now hop up to the heart and let us rip it out of there Jamie-boy!"

Jamie, instead, took a sharp left turn. The room was round and hence, there wasn't anywhere to really go other than left. Rick ended up falling off and Jamie's speed increased from the lack of weight. "Fuck, you were heavy!" He jumped at least a dozen feet into the air and landed on the wall and then jumped across, to the center tube that hung from the ceiling and supported the bouncing uterus. He jumped up the walls of the tube with surprising speed, no blades of bone seemed to burst from the muscle on this center piece.

Rick noted this and looked at the shifting ground, his heart skipped a beat as he rolled to the side to avoid being shishkabobbed on the rising spear of bone that burst from the ground. He quickly jumped up and grabbed onto the root-like lines of skin that supported the center tube. He pulled himself up and jumped from here to there, scaling up the tube and gaining grip from the numerous lines of muscle that held the tube in place. He stopped at one line and hung, he was about half way up the room. Jamie had already jumped on top of a cage of bones that was protecting an organ. Rick jumped down the line and into the wall of criss crossing bones. He gripped one of them and pulled, grunting with the effort. "Nah! You need ME!" The bone started to crack and break and Rick pushed with his legs against the cage. The bone he was gripping broke and he fell down, actually breaking through several lines of muscle with his fall, the bone still in his hands. "You got your weapon. Are you happy now?"

Rick fell to the ground, landing on his back. "Probably should have thought that through a little more."

Jamie fell from the ground and landed next to him, he looked as though he had personally dived head-first into an organ, which actually fell behind him and spewed out gallons of a strange sort of puss. Rick stood up as the uterus bounced and hit the ground, the lines holding it snapped. The lining of the uterus burst open and a clawed hand burst from the organ. The flesh hung loose as the "baby" tore out of its prison. It looked somewhat humanoid. It had a bulbous head and its eyes were swelled shut. It stumbled to its feet, covered in blood and cried out, it already had teeth that were pushing out of the lining of its gums. The cry was a gargled roar, high pitched. The two boys covered their ears at the sound. The blood dripped down its body to reveal and yellowish-brown skin. It sniffed around; its face was somewhat like a snout, with two slits for nostrils. It slowly pried its swollen eyes open as it walked around, stumbling frequently.

"Oh! It's a… boy… monster… thing." Jamie said slowly. He looked at Rick, who was already charging at the newborn. Jamie paused and noticed the ground below him moving. He dashed forwards to avoid a blade of bone and jumped up the wall, using the lines to make numerous short hops up the top. "You take care of the baby, I'll take care of the mother!" Blades of bone shot out the walls at him and he dodged them with ease as he moved up to the ceiling.

The baby stumbled around and swung its arms around, wobbling with its massive head and tearing through the roots of muscle that covered the ground and connected the tube to the ground. Rick moved in quickly and swung the bone with both hands at the creatures ankle, which was at least three times thicker than Rick's whole body. Thankfully, at least he could reach the ankle, though he had to swing upwards, slightly.

"Fuck yeah! I hate babies!" The Terror Mask cheered. The infant stumbled on impact and fell to the ground with its arms around its face. It bore its teeth at Rick as he ran to the face and jumped over its arms. He jumped upwards and slammed the bone down onto the baby's skull, which snapped it half. The creature cried out and grabbed Rick around the middle with its swollen hand and threw him. He ended up slamming into the farthest wall and slid down.

He groaned, getting to his feet only for him to hear the cracking of his own bones. A blade shot from the ground and completely dismembered the lower half of his left leg. He fell to the ground and started to roll sideways as blades punched out the ground to impale him. "There's a joke here, I'm just not sure what it is." The mask hesitated and would have shrugged if Rick weren't busy trying to avoid being impaled. "Oh fuck it. RICK! YOU SUCK!"

"I know! I know!" Rick stopped on his stomach as the last blade sucked back into the ground. The infant was crawling towards him. It growled at him, exposing multiple rows of thin, razor sharp teeth. Obviously the school wasn't going to try to impale him while the baby was near.

Jamie on the other hand was dodging blades left and right, he had already gotten to the roof and clung to the walls of the cage that encased the beating heart. He ducked as a spear pushed out of the flesh at him from an angle. He blew a raspberry at the wall, which couldn't be seen because of the mask on his face. "Fuck you; wall!"

"Jamie, for fuck's sake; Stay on track!" The Nightmare Mask scolded.

He paused as he heard a strange squelching noise behind him. He looked at the source of the noise. The ceiling above was shifting in a different way. A piece of sharp looking bone poked out of the roof. It was too far away to reach him, considering the average length of the blades. The muscles around the bone tightened and the bone was shot from the roof and Jamie yelled out loud as the knife of bone hit him in the left shoulder. Through clenched teeth he groaned in pain as he gripped the knife and wrenched it out. He looked at it and a stroke of genius hit him. He threw the bone through the bars and it struck the heart. The heart started to bleed. It was massive, this one puncture wasn't going to stop it. It was easily three times or more, larger than Jamie. He turned around, sure enough, more knives poked out of the ceiling. He jumped to the wall to the left of the bars as they shot at him. Some of them stabbed into the wall and even into the bars of the cage.

"Fuck this, let's speed this up a touch!" The Nightmare Mask grew hot and took over, bursting open Jamie's flesh to reveal patches of blood red flame. She swung down and gripped the bars of the cage, several knives shot into her back and Jamie shouted in his own head. "Dammit! Dodge those things! They fucking hurt!"

She ignored him, her claws started to glow, the bones of her claws extending out slightly and the lines of red across the hands cracked and spread. The light of her hands changed black and the bones turned purple. Jamie would have been punching the lines of his skull if he could from the burning he felt. She slashed through the bars with ease. After a few cuts, there was a hole in the bars. She jumped through as her claws returned to normal and she shrank down. Jamie hunched over, standing in the pocket of skin that surrounded the heart, his hands shivering. "Stop doing that thing with the claws!" He sounded fairly mad, but moved in, clicking his claws together and ready to carve the heart out.

Rick looked up at the infant, it raised its foot to stomp on him. He rolled onto his back and in an instant, the Terror Mask took over. Several pints of blood pushed out of his body along with the bones pushing out of his back and arms. He was actually pushed up at an angle from this and caught the baby's foot as it slammed down. He tilted it over with ease and got to his feet. The infant was already stumbling to its feet, both of them paused as the flesh around them began to vibrate and something echoed throughout the entire building. The heart fell from the ceiling, spewing out gallons of blood, while the muscles and tendons making up the walls shivered. Rick shrank down to normal.

"Oh fuck…" Rick said, he dove to the ground and sank his fingers into the flesh of the ground. He braced himself, expecting the worst.

"Rick? What the fuck are you doing? GET US OUT OF HERE!" The mask shouted at him.

Rick looked around as the baby started to cry, it stumbled around the room, clearly confused about what was happening. It was large enough that it was tearing more lines of muscle just by walking around. "No portal?" He asked out loud.

"No, no portal! Now MOVE!" Rick didn't need to be told twice, but he complied anyway, running and jumping up the room as the flesh beneath his fingers began to tear. The bones lining the walls began to shiver and jets of blood gushed out of the walls. He could hear the crying of the baby as he scaled the walls. He saw Jamie leap to the exit in just two massive bounds that would have made any athlete jealous.

He quickly made it up to the double doors and ran out, the walls of the hallways were starting to crumble as chunks of muscle and bone fell from the roof. The mask however, seemed to be enjoying himself. As with all the torn flesh of the building came gallons of blood that was already starting to pool on the ground. "Rick, do you think we could stick around for about an hour once we get out? Or however long it takes me to become bloated from all this?"

Jamie burst through a window that covered the entire wall at the end of the hallway. Rick jumped through the hole in the glass and landed in the tall grass on the other side. Blood was still sucking up his body as it began to leak out of the walls of the building. It creaked loudly, like the sound of wood settling and several jets of blood burst out of the walls on the outside of the building. The flow of blood began to slow after a few seconds and became more like a fountain, forming medium sized "bloodfalls" here and there across the walls.

"Now that's about as beautiful as it gets." The Terror Mask said in a tone that made one think he was looking at an elegant painting in a museum.

The ground rumbled for a few seconds, putting Rick and Jamie on guard. They looked down the hall they had come from through the hole in the glass. The wall of the hallway burst open, sending a mixture of blood and wood flying. Something moved in the shadows and crunched loudly through flesh and bone. The sound of brick and wood being smashed through could be heard around the corner of the building.

Jamie paused, his curious expression covered by Nightmare. He stood up on his hind legs and leaned his head into his left hand. "I think… the baby is still alive."

He ended up getting it in one, as the infant stumbled from around the corner. It wailed in fury and bent low, swiping at them. Jamie dashed backwards and Rick ended up being grabbed by the infant's hand. He pressed against it and struggled. Its grip seemed much tighter than when it had thrown him. He slowly pried its fingers apart only for the baby to tilt him towards its opening mouth. It obviously was going to bite his head off. He pushed with more strength, still rather slow in pushing its fingers apart. Jamie moved forwards and jumped onto its leg, he sank his whole left arm into the skin of its leg and reached around, he nodded his head from side to side a bit and seemed to grab what he was looking for. He pulled out and the baby toppled over, dropping Rick. Jamie was still attached to the leg and dropped to the ground. The monster cried out, shaking its legs and arms, clearly throwing a tantrum. Rick got to his feet and bolted, moving out of the creatures reach. He stopped a few meters out of its range.

Jamie slid to a stop next to him and stood up as best he could. He tapped his right foot on the ground and crossed his arms. "You know…" He said slowly. "I never knew… that buildings could have babies… And I learned something today." He nodded at Rick in an expectant sort of way.

Rick rolled his eyes, though it couldn't be seen since the entirety of his eyes were glowing yellow, unlike Jamie's, which were purple. "Focus, the BABY!" He pointed at the creature currently pounding furiously at the ground while it cried. It was likely drawing the attention of anyone in earshot of its cries, which would likely be as far as five to six blocks away. Not that the sound of the crumbling building and the shaking ground wouldn't have garnered some attention as well.

The creature suddenly started to writhe and scream even more loudly. Rick and Jamie both covered their ears from the noise as the baby began to mutate in front of them. Its skin seemed to crumble and dry, pealing apart and even falling off of its body, underneath, muscles swelled and bulged as a brown monster tore out of the infants skin. It had a thick, muscular body, it was also humanoid, but seemed a little more bipedal. It grew in size to be at least a third larger than the infant. It had a somewhat elongated face with no lips that exposed thicker and longer teeth. It's nostrils were also mere slits on its face. Its eyes faced forward and something like stretchy ears unfolded from its head. The monster bent low, black eyes one Rick and Jamie. Its body was much more sleek, with its skin pulled tightly around every muscle of its body, it had clawed feet and hands and a tail pushed out of its spine. This tail had a pointed end and this creature stepped forwards, hunched over to look at Jamie, focusing on him. It growled and opened its massive jaws. It snapped forwards, grabbing Jamie by the arm and tossing him into the air. He yelled as he fell and it snapped its jaws around his whole body and swallowed, its thin tongue moved out and licked the outer rim of its teeth. It looked at Rick and paused, its eyes widening. Rick recalled what had happened when the Terror Mask had jumped inside of a living entity and he bolted away from it. The creature howled in agony, standing up straight. Its stomach vibrated and a vertical cut along its stomach sliced open. Jamie slid out along with the creatures organs and the creature collapsed, its eyes frozen with fear. Jamie was covered in blood and quickly began to push himself up and out of the mess of body parts, his hands slipping amongst the mess. He managed to slip and slide his way out of the pile and as he trotted away, he ended up slipping and landed on his face in the blood. "Eeewww!"

Rick sighed and crossed his arms. "Well, that went extremely well."

Jamie pushed himself up and slipped again, falling onto his side. "You're a sick puppy!" He looked at Rick and his tone indicated annoyance.

Rick shrugged, walking towards Jamie with intent to assist him in getting out of the puddle of blood. "Well if the pot isn't calling the kettle black?"


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: New Power

Rick grabbed Jamie's blood-soaked arm and carefully dragged him out of the spreading puddle. Copious amounts of blood was sucking up both their bodies. Jamie stood up, looking at Rick, then back at the school, which was pooling enough blood on the ground around it to fill up a swimming pool or two. "This is disgusting." He shook off a bit of the lining of a monsters stomach off his arm, clearly repulsed. "I can't wait to take a shower."

Rick shrugged, he was actually used to it, but listening to Jamie complain brought back memories. He almost fondly recalled prying open a fleshy wall that was blocking the way to a Meat Factory he had been in early on. Even now he could remember the exact revulsion he felt when slime and blood fell out of the hole in the wall, completely soaking his legs and shoes. The smell was intolerable and he had to swallow a bit of his own throw-up at the time. "Gah!" He was broken from his reminiscing by something causing him to jerk forwards, he hunched over, holding his head as it felt like his brain froze solid.

Jamie jumped backwards a few feet and looked around, then at Rick. "What was that?"

The Terror Mask let out an interested chuckle. "Who knew?"

The right half of Rick's face twitched involuntarily as he held his head and straightened up. "What?"

The Mask just shrugged while Rick felt his brain cool off. "It doesn't matter."

"Ghh," Rick bent down to one knee rubbing his massive fingers into his skull. "If it doesn't matter, then tell me anyway."

The Terror Mask paused and shook their head. "Nah,"

Jamie was having his own conversation, whispering quietly to the Nightmare Mask, unlike Rick, who seemed to have no problem asking questions out loud. "Dammit... I get it." He muttered and looked up at Rick, his sad expression was covered by the mask.

"You prick," Rick told the mask. He stood up and shivered, the affects of whatever he had felt was already wearing off. Clearly Jamie hadn't sensed it as strongly as Rick had.

Jamie turned around and Rick watched him dash up to the body of the creature he had just slain. He hopped up, on top of the head and jumped on top of the beasts shoulder. "Rick, I'm sorry, I like you. You're a good friend, but I suggest that if you want to stop the Nightmare Mask from releasing this Abomination monster..." Jamie raised his claws and sunk them into the flesh of the corpse. "that you kill me."

The Nightmare Mask took over his body in an instant, causing his body to double in size, the short boney spikes poked out of his spine and his flesh bursting open to reveal flaming patches of red energy on both sides of his back, his fore-arms, his legs and the lower left half of his chest. She surrounded his head and with a burst of light, the body she had her claws imbedded in glowed. It moved, pushing itself to its feet. She jumped off the body and landed on the blood-soaked ground. She jumped back into the building, obviously she had business inside. The corpse looked at them, it took a step forwards and the organs that hung from its stomach detached completely, the innards dropped to the ground in a pile.

"Don't worry Rick, it may be dead, but it can't fight if it's got no arms and legs." The Mask said poignantly.

He nodded in response, clearly ready to kill this corpse. The body raised a clawed hand and slashed at them, Rick jumped forwards, landing on the creature's wrist and gripping on tight. The body raised its wrist that was holding Rick and tried to shake him off. Rick gripped more tightly, he could feel the flesh already starting to tear under his fingers. His head span slightly from the movement. He jerked as it flailed its arm around and he was forced to let go, his mind felt like it had been frozen again. He flew into the school building and dented the wall inwards on impact. He fell out, twitching slightly and crashing to the ground. "I can't move." Rick muttered while trying to get his twitching body to cooperate. He felt so stiff and his vision was blurring a bit. It was like he wasn't wearing his glasses, and while he wasn't, the mask did correct his vision enough that he didn't need them while he was wearing it.

"Relax, it'll be over in a few seconds." The mask turned white hot and took over, forcing Rick to his feet. Each time the mask moved his muscles, it felt from his perspective like it was moving lead.

He had the usual changes made to him and the mask ran forwards and rammed into the body's leg. It toppled over and he grabbed the ankle, pulling the creature towards him several feet. He moved in and Rick felt a sharp pain in his head while the mask moved their stiff body, he raised their arms up and used the extendable blades to chop down at the leg, he dismembered it with ease. The corpse still moved, swiping at him with its right arm. The Terror Mask was smacked several meters to the side, crashing to the ground and rolling till he finally slid to a halt in the bloody puddles surrounding the school grounds. He forced Rick to his feet, who's head was spinning, his brain still felt like it had been frozen. "Come on kid, I need you to focus."

He shrank back to normal, Rick felt his knee's give and he held his head, dizzy. "What is happening to me?" He got to his feet, his limbs were still pretty stiff.

"You're going from Tainted to Infused, that's what's happening. The vibe we got in the cab the other day was YOU. All that Necro was fermenting in your body and by luck of the draw, you put me on just as it was reaching it's apex. The extra Necro bath you've been getting pushed your soul to the edge. It's either die or Infuse and I'm not letting you die just yet, so you Infused."

Rick shivered involuntarily as the corpse pulled itself towards him. He felt a rush through his body suddenly, his glowing yellow eyes flashed and he ran forwards. DAMN! It felt good. Like an adrenaline rush times a million. The creature swung its arm at him and he caught the blow. He slid back only from the absence of traction on the bloody ground. He yanked the beast several feet forwards till the shoulder was facing him. He grabbed the arm and put his foot on the creature's shoulder, this rush turned to ecstasy as he pulled, his muscles actually swelling for a few seconds and with the ease of parting his own hair, he ripped the arm off with a loud crunching sound. He was bathed in blood, the corpses light died off and Rick's body deflated to a normal behemoth. He stood, hyperventilating at the rush. "YEAAH!" He shouted and actually fell over, this rush continuing to pulsate through every nerve in his body. "Let's do that again."

"Well, I can see you're enjoying yourself." The mask commented. "But don't think this will last forever. You're gonna have to learn to control this if we want to kill that bitch and her pet human." Rick relaxed, it suddenly sounded panicked as his eyelids started to droop as he felt a sudden exhaustion wash over him. The rush ended in an instant and he lay his head back, his eyes fluttering open as he fought to stay awake. "But it's imperative that you do not fall asleep, you're going to be exhausted after using up the only power you had. If you fall asleep, it'll take hours to recover, by the time you wake up, who knows how much progress that woman will have made." Rick started to fade in and out, the masks voice echoed in his mind and became more indistinct. The Mask let out a soft and short laugh. "I've never owned an Infused Soul before." Rick closed his eyes, he couldn't even understand the mask. It paused as it realized Rick was falling asleep. "RICK! I just said NOT to fall asleep! RICK!" Its shouts turned to soft echoes and finally dissipated into nothingness, Rick was already fast asleep. The Terror Mask sat there, vibrating a bit and fuming. "I fucking hate you."

* * *

There was echoes and the clicking sound of camera's. "Haven't ever seen anything like this thing." The voice sounded like a man in his late twenties to early thirties.

"Can you identify anything about it?" This was a deeper voice, also male.

An exasperated sigh came in response. "How many times do I have to say this? I'm a FORENSICS expert. You want me to find out if O.J killed his wife using D.N.A evidence, fingerprints and blood spatter analysis? That I can do! But I can't identify a giant humanoid monster that no one has ever SEEN before! Call a biologist you fuck-head!" Whoever this was sounded very annoyed. "Now get me my kit, Dick!"

Something registered in Rick's mind at the words. "Don't call me Dick." He muttered softly. "I hate that." He felt pretty tired. He also felt pretty cold, he could even feel something cold and wet sliding up his chest.

"Rick! FINALLY! You have to get up, there are people everywhere. All the noise that we made when this place died and killing the monster attracted a shit ton of police and investigators." It paused as Rick stirred slightly, not fully awake.

"This thing is waking up, get me a tranq!" The voice said. "With muscles these size, I don't want to find out if it's friendly or not."

"Oh yeah, and also there's a giant monster flying around. The Abomination shed a piece of flesh that turned into a bird and flew away. It's probably eating people as we speak." The mask sounded fairly annoyed as Rick shook his head. A light glowed over his left eye and he actually rolled onto his stomach, setting his head down as best he could. "Fucking human..."

"Whoa!" The voice let out a nervous laugh. "I don't think it will be hard to keep this thing asleep, it doesn't seem to want to wake up."

"Just shut up and have your gun ready if we can't tranq it." A nervous female spoke this time.

"Rick! WAKE UP!" The mask paused as it grasped for something that would make Rick get up. "I have... uuhhh." The mask hesitated for a few seconds. "CHEESECAKE! I have cheesecake for you boy." The mask whistled like it was talking to a dog. "Come on Ricky boy! Come on! Ricky want some cheesecake?"

That actually seemed to work to some extent, Rick peered an eye open, his vision was blurry but quickly focused on the blades of grass around him, illuminated by the light of the moon. "Cheesecake?" He muttered.

"Yes! I have cheesecake. That's it." The mask started coaxing Rick as he closed his right hand, considering getting up, but still fairly groggy.

"Did that thing just talk?" The young male asked.

"I think it said "Cheesecake". The female voice said. "Who knew? The Hulk likes cheesecake."

There was nervous laughter from the male. "That's ridiculous. This isn't the fucking Hulk. I don't even know what this is."

Rick slowly pushed himself to his feet, he shook his head and looked around. In the dark he could see quite a few people. There was at least five police cars and around and while there was at least a dozen people here, there was also two people standing right next to him. Most people had stopped to look at him, but one was looking at Rick and focusing in with his photographer's camera. He took a firm snapshot of Rick and lowered his camera, looking amazed. Another one hadn't even noticed Rick and was still looking at the dead body of the "baby" Jamie had killed. "Good boy!" The mask coaxed Rick like he was talking to a pet and then changed tone immediately. "Now GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE!"

Rick was still a little sleepy, but he still broke into a run, barreling past two officers that had frozen in place. He rammed through them like they were dolls. Nobody seemed to try to stop him, he quickly made it to the edge of the school grounds and into the dense set of trees on the outskirts of the grounds. He kept running, trying to piece together what had happened before he had lost consciousness. "I don't remember how I fell asleep."

"It was you using up the only ounce of Necro Energy you had at your disposal to kill that dead body. You used it up and since you used it up AS SOON AS YOU GOT IT" The mask sounded very annoyed. "you fell asleep. Kind of like a sugar rush, only faster."

Rick strained his memory to recall what the mask was talking about, dashing through tree's. A flash occurred and he remembered. He skidded to a halt, suddenly feeling rage towards the mask. "WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO ME?!"

The mask seemed taken aback at Rick's abrupt response. "What? It's what happens sometimes."

Rick clenched his fists, he was actually a little scared. "What have you turned me into?"

The mask seemed annoyed already. "Relax Rick, Infused souls are just the next level after Tainted. Once you're contaminated, depending on the level of contamination, you simmer for a while. Once that simmer finishes, you're primed for becoming one with the contamination. A little more juice and POW! You gain abilities that usually you would never have as a human... or you die."

Rick paused as he looked back at where he had come from and kept running. "So am I still human?"

"Technically yes, species is all in the body." The mask sounded like it was avoiding saying the whole truth. It paused and shrugged. "But your abilities seemed to coexist well with my own. I'm guessing your abilities will be purely symbiotic. No me, no using your powers."

Rick felt a squirming in his stomach of unease. He didn't like that answer. "So I'm like... you?"

The mask had that same tone of avoidance as it spoke. "Kind of... not really... but kind of. You're still more you then you are me. More like your Infusion has based itself around me because I'm the source of the contamination and I opted for keeping you alive instead of letting this run its natural course, which probably would have killed you." He didn't sound too concerned. "Probably, could have survived on your own, not really my concern anymore."

Rick grimaced under the mask and moaned in annoyance. "You had better not have fucked up my kid too!"

The mask remained silent and then whistled with a sense of false innocence. "I'm sure it'll be fine." It muttered to itself something that Rick couldn't actually hear clearly. But Rick could swear he heard the word "psychic" in his head. He fumed, wanting to tear the mask off and use any few extra seconds he'd have with the Terror Mask's power to smash it to pieces. He'd likely not succeed, but the thought was there. He grit his teeth, at the moment there was nothing he could do about this.

"So what kind of power does this mean I have?" Rick could remember a huge rush he had just before he passed out, but most of it seemed to blur together, making it hard to remember exact details.

"You amplified my powers a bit. Went a little berserk for about five seconds. I'm guessing your powers have become a magnifying glass for mine." He paused. "I'm gonna help you figure out how to use em'. It may come in handy if I need an extra boost while I'm controlling your body. I've been using this stuff my whole life. I'll have you using this stuff like you use your cell phone in no time." He sounded very sure of himself.

Rick sighed, still sprinting. He actually jumped as he reached a barbed wire fence. "So which way to we go to get to Jamie?" He felt his legs move and slide to a stop, he almost fell over from the sudden change.

The Terror Mask sniffed the air, he pointed Rick's head in the correct direction. "They went on foot. The next place must be close enough that porting was not needed." Rick started running in the correct direction. "Let's just hope she hasn't cleared it out already."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Satan's Church

Rick was still running and had been for a half hour through the trees. He had already had to cross roads. He had dashed through back yards and he was starting to wonder if he would ever get to where he was going. Thankfully, the darkness of the night hid him quite well. He actually felt some new sensation in his chest that he couldn't quite pin down. It was like he was hungry, but it wasn't any hunger he was used too. First of all, it was a lot higher up than his stomach. Secondly was it wasn't the same sort of emptiness one feels in their gut when they're starving, but it was starting to get distracting. It felt more hollow than anything. He couldn't help but obsess over this sensation because it seemed to be getting stronger and more noticeable.

He actually felt something in his chest that felt a lot like a vibration, he skidded to a halt and ran a hand over his chest, curious. "Did I just rumble?" A light from a nearby house turned on and a dog was let out of the back porch. Rick stood behind a particularly thick tree.

"You're just low on energy. You used it all, so now you're hungry. It's kind of like having two stomachs. You'll get used to it." The mask got on guard as the dog started barking in their direction. "I think you should kill it, it'll give me a chance to show you how to feed." He really hated dogs.

"I'm not killing someone's pet!" Rick felt an uncomfortable twisting sensation in his chest. It made it very hard to focus. It very close to what one would feel when they were working a full shift at work on an empty stomach, but not exactly identical. "Ooohh, I feel like shit." He muttered.

"You will if you want to feel better." The mask seemed to be enjoying himself, obviously he was very familiar with these hunger pangs Rick was experiencing. "You used up all your energy, you're running on empty and that can get distracting quick!" The mask would have been smirking if it could. "You want to fill up? You gotta kill."

Rick started running again, ignoring the dogs barks as it spotted them and it growled protectively, it wasn't going to attack since Rick had yet to get in range of its home. "I'm not human anymore, am I?"

"Species is all in the body Rick!" The mask spoke in a matter of fact way. "What is working the controls at the brain is another matter."

There was a strange howl that cut through the air and Rick slid to a halt as he saw a shadow cut through the moon overhead. He looked up and started running again. The dog had started to bark more furiously and its barks turned to a frightened yelp with the sound of crunching tree's. Rick turned around and the dog was gone, the owner walked to the patio and called out. "Delgado?" He asked and looked around. There were broken tree branches all over the yard. Rick stood behind a tree as the owner continued to call out, not seeing the behemoth attempting to hide out of sight. Rick's eyes widened as the tree's crunched loudly again and wood snapped, leaves shook and fell to the ground in a short rain as something dived down from the sky and the man screamed as a pair of fleshy talons grabbed him around the middle and lifted him up into the sky. Its long tail smashed a long dent in the roof, crunching through the shingles as it moved back up. Rick followed the creatures movements as it zipped through the air.

"I'm guessing that shadow is the "bird" the Abomination left here?" He couldn't see it very clearly because it was so fast, zipping here and there, it was probably searching for more prey.

"Looks like the perfect candidate to give you tutorial on Necro Energy 101!" The mask said excitedly. "It clearly grabs when it hears or see's you. Make some noise."

Rick ran up to the light of the porch, he stood up on the wood, only for his weight to crunch the stairs immediately. Obviously it wasn't meant to hold what could easilly be five hundred pounds or more of solid muscle. Rick stepped back and looked up. "HEY! ASSHOLE! DOWN HERE!"

He couldn't see where the "bird" had gone, but he thought he saw a shadow block out some stars in the sky. "DOWN HERE PRICK! COME ON!" Rick waved his arms and sure enough, the shadow crunched down on the tree's and Rick felt teeth sink into his arm. He was tossed into the air and yelled. He saw the shadowy jaws of the monster open up below him as the creature had perched itself on numerous tree's. He fell down and broke his fall by planting his hand on one of the teeth. He swung downwards and lost his grip. The creature snapped its jaws shut and Rick grabbed onto something soft and squishy. He hung in the mouth and the creature shook its head slightly. Rick paused as he realized what he had grabbed onto. "This thing is going to puke us out, isn't it?"

The tongue wrapped around him and he felt the creature turn its head downwards. The creature gagged slightly and spat him out. He landed on a leathery wing. He looked up at the creature. It wasn't so much a bird as it was more like a massive hairless bat. Its ears folded back as it bore its teeth at Rick. It snapped at him and Rick jumped, landing on its snout. He crawled up its face and the tree's below crunched loudly and gave. The creatures feet landed on the ground. It instinctively jumped up and flapped its wings. Rick clung on for his life, not wanting to fall as the monster flew through the air. "Is this a bad time to mention that I'm not too fond of heights?" Rick asked out loud, clearly a little intimidated. The creature had already reached at least sixty feet.

"I don't care Rick... I really do not care."

The bat span in midair and Rick sank his fingers into the flesh, tearing it. The only bright side was this distracted him from the feeling in his chest. The creature stopped spinning and hovered in midair, shaking its face to try to get Rick off. The creature bent its face forwards to grab at Rick with its fleshy talons. He pulled himself of its face and span around, so he face the direction the bat was facing. He grabbed the edge of each ear with a hand and dug his heels into the sides of its neck. "GIDDYUP!"

The creature squeeled loudly, suddenly flying forwards, Rick began to tug this way and that, trying to steer the bat with only the slightest impact. He ducked low as the wind whipped around him. Thankfully the wind was relatively warm. He smashed his left fist down between the monsters ears and it dove downwards. He pulled up on its ears and it tilted upwards slightly. "I'm flying!" He shouted in a sort of raw excitement. He paused, thinking. "Can we use this to get to follow that girl?"

The mask grew warm, but not hot as it took control. Rick felt something strange, like he was being pushed into the back seat of his own brain. He had felt it before, but it seemed a little more noticeable this time. The mask tugged the beasts ears sharply to the left and it slowly started turning in the correct direction. It cried out as it flew and span, Rick increased his grip in reaction and dug his feet as much into the bat's neck as he could. It released a cry of pain and stopped spinning, straining to breathe. "Rick, you're gonna kill it before we're finished! Hold your horses man! I know you're starving, but still!" The Mask let out a dark laugh, obviously he was making fun of Rick.

"Don't like the spinning, shut up and drive." Rick muttered, actually closing his eyes. The mask pried his eyes open andhe drove the beast upwards. They were moving very quickly, shooting through the air. Rick felt a strange burst around them, he had to lean close to the beasts head to avoid being pulled back at the force of the wind. He spoke out loud. "What the hell was that?" He paused as he realized he couldn't hear his voice. In fact he couldn't hear anything, not even the whipping of the wind around the mask. The beast moved with incredible speed and soared across the tree's, reaching buildings. He could see downtown and the creature pulled its wings in tight as it zipped through the air like a bullet. "Are you sure this is the right direction?" Rick thought to the mask. The bat moved low the the ground, flapping in bursts every so often to push itself forwards.

"She must have moved on foot because she can move faster than us. If we have to follow her on foot, it would have taken forever to get to where she was going." The mask paused, it could still tell they were on the right path. "Pretty clever for a bitch."

They zipped over downtown, actually moving between sky scrapers and as they did so, the glass shattered on the buildings shortly after they passed. Clearly they were moving faster than the speed of sound and there was a sonic boom tailing them.

It didn't take them long to reach where they were going, about ten to twelve minutes. The scenary changed quickly, from cities to towns to the outskirts and finally to the core of the woods. Rick was still laying as flat as he could against the bat and the Terror Mask pulled back on the creature's ears. It began to slow down and finally the mask led the bat low, it cried out nervously as it knicked the grounds of a cemetary, knocking over the head of a statue. The Terror Mask slammed a fist down on top of its head. The creature was slammed down and began to slide through stone and earth, forming a stretching crater in the ground. Rick held tight as the bat finally slammed head first into an archaic stone wall and he was sent flying over it, yelling out loud as he crash landed onto soft grass and rolled meters, finally crashing into another stone wall, he had dented the stone inwards and landed upside down. He rolled to his feet and stumbled around, dazed. But even as he did, something clicked. He felt something around him. He looked at the bat, or more accurately, the hole the bat had punched through the ancient stone. He stumbled towards it, there was something in the air, but he didn't know what it was.

"Now take it in, it'll make you feel better." The mask said calmly.

Rick stopped in front of the bat and fell to his hands and knee's, still windswept from the crash. He felt something around him and could almost see it, his vision slowly began to lose color and he could see it clearly, a haze of red crackling power. His heart beat in an excitement he couldn't really explain and the feeling in his chest seemed to increase. He blinked and the color in his vision was back. "Is this stuff I feel supposed to be Necro?"

"Yup," The mask paused as it realized Rick had no idea how to even take the energy. Rick felt something strange, like something was guiding his very mind. He focused on the energy and his skin grew warm for a few seconds. The feeling in his chest eased dramatically and Rick started hyperventilating as he felt an odd sensation. He let out a sort of startled laugh. "Ooohh man, that is fucking great!" He shivered and clenched his fists, it was his first taste and he obviously liked it.

"Feels good, don't it? Like eating pizza for the first time. Only this pizza allows you to kill things." The mask took in what was left, after all, Rick couldn't store anywhere near as much as him. "Who knows, maybe I'll have you feeding on blood by the end of this." It paused, realizing it would have to share if that was the case. "I'm not sharing. You can starve to death for all I care, I'm not sharing blood."

Rick looked to his left, considering the Mask's comment and looked at the blood on the ground from the piece of the Abomination. It was sucked up his leg and absorbing into his skin as usual. His wounds were healing from the crash. He turned around to take in the scenary. Gloomy was a word that came to mind. Unexpected was another. The cemetary he had crashed into was surrounded by ancient looking stone walls. The architecture looked very classical, almost like it was the 1600's. The place was overgrown and abandoned, obviously for centuries. He wasn't sure how far off he was from the city, pretty far from the look around them. There was a surprisingly low amount of life. The tree's were all dead and all of the weeds looked fairly small. It was as if their will to survive only got them far enough to reproduce and afterwards they immediately died. There were no sounds around them. Rick looked into the building he had crashed into. The crater he had left in the stone was attached to an old church. Not just any old church either, it was huge. There were statues of angels reaching up to heaven, some holding books, some weilding weapons. Nearby him, in front of the gates was a statue of a female angel on a horse. The wings were spready out and she held a sword up to the sky and in her other hand was a sheild with a cross engraved in it. The head was gone, likely worn away by time. In fact, most of the angels had defects of some kind. Some were missing limbs, others had broken wings. None of them were really whole works of art any more. The building was still gorgeous, even with its flaws. The stained glass windows, Rick couldn't really see what was in them, but he was sure he had an idea of what was probably in them. Like all churches, it probably had iconography of Jesus and Mary. It may have told a story of the ressurection, it could have just been complimenting a specific theme, it could have been anything really. There were gorgeous twisting towers in the center of the roof that reached up several stories. The church was obviously christian, though Rick was far from educated in this specific field to tell what type of christian it would be. He walked up to a statue of an angel, there were two on each side of the double doors that were the entrance to the church. "This is where she is? A church?"

"Kind of ironic, ain't it? The Corrupted didn't seem to be too affected by the good Lord Jesus, did they?"

He looked at the angel and paused. There was one thing he noticed, all these angels were female, not one was male and all of them seemed to have no face, which was hidden by elegan hair. He reached up to the statue and felt the face, it had indentations in it, he peered carefully at it and paused. "There's a mask on this angel." He looked at the other one, it had a mask covering its face too. They even looked like a very specific mask that he had already seen.

"That Nightmare chick is on all of the angels." The Terror Mask said. "Why?" Rick walked up to the double doors, the "handles" to the door was actually the eye sockets of the Nightmare Mask. "Was this place built in her name?"

Rick pulled the doors open and looked in to see the pale moonlight pouring in through the holes in the roof. The inside of the chapel was much more unusual then one would expect. The stained glass windows he could see were absolutely repulsive. They depicted angels torturing people, one was sipping from a cup of blood, they all had the mask on. The pews were carved from rotting wood and one would suspect that if one sat in them, they'd probably fall apart. They actually had already fallen apart, most of them were crumpled and broken. The tattered carpet beneath Rick's feet released a small cloud of dust each time he lifted his foot. He walked in and at the front of the chapel was a massive cross that was carved into the stone wall. It was probably as tall as Rick was. There were different statues here. All of them were clinging to the walls and all wore the mask. They actually seemed to be made of a different material then the wall, because they were all a different color. They wore flowing garments and they obviously weren't angels. It was a safe bet that, from the claws they had and the muscle structure, they were likely past hosts.

Most notable that was decorating the walls and nearly every inch of the chapel was the blood. It was splashed across the stone walls and even dripping down the cross. There were body parts everywhere, dismembered monsters that had once dwelt here.

"Looks like Jamie already did his job here. But why is there no new piece of the Abomination?" Rick asked out loud.

"Cause we're not done yet." One of the statues on the wall moved and jumped to the ground. Turned out it wasn't a statue, it was the real Jamie, he was so hidden by the shadows that it made it difficult to distinguish him from the statues. He landed on the wood of one of the pews, smashing it beneath his feet. "I heard the noise and decided to hide in the shadows." He explained.

Rick raised his fists and stepped towards Jamie. He clicked his claws together in response, but he stopped as the Nightmare Mask took over. She made her usual changes to her host and dashed to the front of the chapel. She jumped onto the marble altar that was in front of the cross. "You know, I find a strong irony in this. Here I was betrayed by humans and it is here that is the last place that I need to turn into a nest of my client. In a few hours, all the other Corrupted Nests will be infested with the servants and fragments of the Abomination. Her purple eyes flashed. "Yet while I was betrayed here, this place was made to honor my services to the Church when I worked for them during the Inquisition."

Rick stepped back, surprised. "You worked for the Inquisitors?" He paused, confused. "The Inquisition spread to America?"

"I thought you said you went to college." Jamie managed to say.

The Nightmare Mask cut him off. "Yes and yes." She crossed her arms. "The Church allowed me to have my own selection of hosts and even have my way with the Heathens at that time." She tilted her head to the side in a fond sort of way. "It was a pretty good gig. They thought I was a weapon sent to them from God. They thought I turned their soldiers into angels." She laughed. "Boy were they stupid."

She glowed with light and raised her claws into the air. The Cross behind her emanated a sickly purple light and with the crumbling of stone, it pulled out of the wall, disturbing the dust and blood. It quickly flipped upside down to become an inverted cross.

"Hmmm... deja vu." The Terror Mask commented as the body parts of the slain beasts around them floated up into the air and began to spin around the cross. The Nightmare Mask waved to them and ran into a back room, the door was left open behind her. Rick looked to his right, there was actually a stone ax in the grip of an angel that was guarding the entrance. He grabbed the ax and wrenched it out of the angels grip. He looked up at the cross and swung his arm backwards as a glowing body part came flying at him. He threw the ax forwards, it tore through the severed head and collided with the Cross, it shattered on impact and the Cross hovered back a few inches. It shuddered, as if reacting in pain.

"Well that didn't happen in 88'." The Terror Mask shrugged and focused. "Okay Rick, you've got some power, now it's time to learn how to use it."

He nodded, a little nervous. He raised his arms to guard himself as a clawed hand was shot at him, the glowing hand slashed through the flesh of his forearm and shot through the other side to dismembered his right arm just below the shoulder. He backed up, feeling his stump. His dismembered arm rose up and glowed with the same sickly looking energy that illuminated the Cross. The limb flew back and span around the Cross with the other limbs. "That's fucked up." Rick said with a sense of disgust.

Rick was leaking blood out his missing arm and ducked as a head came flying at him. It crashed into the doors behind him and flew past him, joining the collection of bloody parts. He looked up at the Cross. "So what do I do to use it?"

The Terror Mask rolled their eyes, Rick felt a sharp stab in his arm and he jerked forwards, the bones of his arm regrowing and his muscles and skin growing behind it. Rick shook his right arm and moved in, catching a skull and was about to take aim. "Charge it and chuck it!" The Mask said.

"What?" Rick ducked and was actually knocked backwards as a leg slammed into his chest and knocked him backwards. It was amazing how much force these glowing body parts could generate.

"Come on Rick, you used it before, you know how!" The Mask seemed to be scolding him.

Rick was clueless, he had no idea how to use it. Obviously he had only managed to activate when he first got it by happenstance. Rick just put a foot back and chucked the head as hard as he could. It crashed through two body parts, only to be knocked out of the air by another one.

"Loser!" The Mask jeered.

Rick shrugged in response and clenched his fists, leaning to the side to avoid a dismemebered hand. "Well, how do you do that transformation thing?"

"What? Taking over your body?" The mask sounded a little dumbstruck. "There is no way you can do that, that's my thing. That uncreative cunt wouldn't dare go into that territory. She may have been dumb enough to consider giving the Nightmare Mask her own fanfiction to explain her backstory, but there's no way she's THAT dumb."

Rick paused, confused. "Wait, what?"

The Mask caught itself, suddenly sounding nervous. "What? Nothing, I didn't say anything."

Rick caught his own severed arm with his right hand and swung it at another limb flying at him. He knocked it straight back and smashed through three other body parts. He then chucked his arm full force at the Cross, which collided with the Cross, knocking it back a few inches. It shivered again and began to move, it hovered forwards and suddenly began to spin. It moved towards him, spinning like a tornado. Rick ran in close and grabbed a flying limb and was about to slam it directly into the Cross only for it to stop spinning. It flipped around, no longer inverted but swung up again, hitting Rick into the air and returning to its inverted position. Rick yelled as he was slammed through the roof. He flailed in midair and fell down, making another hole in the roof. He crash landed on the chapel floor, crushing a limb and putting a crater in the floor. He got slowly to his feet and suddenly felt the familiar rush. He shivered with excitement and rammed forwards. His muscles bulged in mid-run and he rammed through the body parts to get to the Cross. He grabbed the base of the Cross and slammed it down behind him. He lifted it and swung it over his head, slamming it down to his other side and then again. He swung it in a complete circle, smashing through several body parts. He let go and it crashed through the heavy wooden doors. It crunched into the Statue, destroying it. The Cross shuddered in place and hovered back into the air. The dismemberd body parts flew out of the double doors and span around the Cross again. They all hovered to a stop in front of the Cross and began shooting at Rick. He raised his arms, this rush made it almost impossible for him to actually feel worried. He recklessly charged forwards, out the door, his right hand glowed orange, the bones showing through his skin and it suddenly flashed, changing to yellow. The body parts simply bounced off his body, hardly affecting him. He jumped into the air at the Cross and pulled his right fist back. He swung, hitting the Cross and slamming it to the ground, his fist releasing a massive shock on contact. It was slammed to the ground and imbedded into the earth. Rick landed to the ground, the rush ending and the Cross cracked. The light faded from it and the body parts all fell to the ground. Rick suddenly felt the similar exhaustion he had felt from before and his legs gave, he fell forwards, only his stomach.

"Rick! Do NOT fall asleep again." Rick responded by forcing his eyes open, he slowly pushed himself to his feet and nodded his head up and down as he fought to stay conscious. "You need to stop using all of this shit at once. Moderation! You use it all as soon as you get it and you're gonna get knocked out every time."

Rick shook his head and stepped backwards a few steps, tired. "How do I stop using it?" He asked in a dazed voice, everything was a little hazy at the moment.

The mask sighed. "Okay, obviously I'm going to have to treat you like a bigger idiot then usual."

Rick nodded in response, not really fully registering the insult. He really just wanted to fall asleep again, though that empty feeling in his chest had returned and it was fairly noticeable.


	12. Chapter 12

Splatterhouse 3

Chapter 11: The Angel in the Dungeons

Though the architecture of the Church was beautiful, there was a very different story underneath the building. Winding catacombs with recently lit torches, meeting rooms, torture chambers and prisons. Obviously the building had been used for more then just honoring Nightmare's services. In the prisons there were cries from monsters and beasts, many of the Forgotten were locked inside. One cell however had exactly three normal people inside. A pair of identical twins and a young woman. The twins were husky with dyed hair and beards. One had bright blue hair and the other had neon green hair.

"Dammit! What are we going to do?!" Jason said, pulling on his neon green beard.

"Just calm down Jason, this is not the time to panic." Freddy said, putting a hand on Jason's shoulder and looking at the flat iron bars that locked them in.

Jason snapped back at his brother, ready to slap him. "THIS IS THE PERFECT TIME TO PANIC!" He screamed. "WE GOT KIDNAPPED BY AN OLD GUY AND MONSTERS! WE'RE LOST! WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!"

Freddy slapped Jason across the face. "Stop freaking out, what are you? A man?! Or a pussy?!"

Jason shivered and held his cheek, rubbing the red skin. "I'm a pussy."

Freddy raised his hand to his forehead and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I can't believe this."

The girl was quite petite with fairly nice figure that was concealed by baggy clothing. However her hips may have been capable of sinking a ship, even with the baggy pants. She had short, spiky red hair and a pale complexion. She had her legs crossed and was looking at the ground with a hand on each knee. "Shut up you two, I'm trying to think. I can't do it with you two crying like ninnies!"

Freddy sighed, looking at her and leaning against the bars of their prison. "Amy, what could you possibly manage to figure out?"

She shrugged her shoulders, not really sure. "I dunno, double barrel hinges maybe?"

Jason paused and looked at the door on the cell and his eyes half closed. "I'm not sure that the Pirates of the Carribean will save us." His legs shivered and he fell to his knee's. He punched the ground and winced as his knuckles cracked on the stone floor. "Oooooowww!" He whimpered, tears whelling up as he pulled up his fist and looked at the bruises already forming on his hand.

The air was filled with the growls of beasts, the clattering of claws on stone and even the rattling of wood. The specific sound of claws on stone was getting louder and Freddy looked out the bars and to his right, where the noise was echoing from. The tortured scream of a monster cut through the air and bones crunched loudly, Freddy's eyes widened and he backed away from the door, he bent over, facing into a dark corner and vomiting into it. Jason looked out the door and his eyes widened in fear at the destruction.

A muscular creature cut through bone and sinew with his clawed hands. He was bathed in blood and grabbed a Forgotten's face with his back left claw. He wrenched back and slammed the monster into the ground, crushing its skull on impact to the stone.

Jamie sighed, looking at his soaked body and then up at the eyes staring at him through the cell in the prison. He trotted over, the blood soaking into his skin and even draining out of his wrecked shorts. He stopped in front of the door and then stepped back in surprise. Jason backed up and pinned himself against the wall. "Dudes, monster! Giant fucking monster!"

Amy poked her head into view and looked out the door of the cell. Jamie's eyes widened. "Amy?!" He instantly moved forwards and grabbed the bars of the cell. He stood up as best he could while Amy backed away in surprise. "Amy, what are you doing here?"

"What the fuck?" She asked, her voice shaking.

He paused, looking down at his mutated legs and laughed nervously. "Ziggy ziggy kerpow, babe!"

"Jamie?" She moved forwards and put a hand on one of Jamie's long fingers and ran her fingers along one of his claws. "What happened to you?" She paused, something clicking in her mind. "WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN?!" She snapped. "You had me worried sick!"

Jamie jumped backwards and cringed, cowering at her rage and temporarily forgetting how much bigger and stronger he was. "Sorry, it's a long story."

Jason looked at Amy and moved forwards, admiring how she managed to get Jamie to cringe. "Nice, very nice! We need you at the head of the line." He punched her arm in a playful fashion. "You got a giant monster to fear you."

She slapped his other cheek and he staggered backwards and fell over, holding his cheek, his eyes watering from the pain. "Ooowwww!" He whimpered exactly like his brother.

"I like her." The Nightmare Mask said coolly. "She's strong. Stronger then you."

"Stay the FUCK away from her!" Jamie said, instantly standing up and baring his claws. "If you so much as TOUCH one hair on her head, I'll-"

"You'll WHAT Jamie?" The Nightmare Mask cut him off and he didn't flinch as pain shot up his spine, it started to increase and eventually he grunted in pain. She paused, noticing this sudden strength he seemed to be exhibiting. Rather out of character, considering his previous behavior. "She makes you strong." The Nightmare Mask paused. "Stronger then when your life or sanity is being threatened."

"Jamie, who are you talking too?" Amy put her hands on the bars, looking concerned.

"Not now!" He snapped. "Listen, I don't care about your stupid job, we're helping her get out of here." He got a lot more assertive and damn quick.

The mask considered him, he could almost hear her thoughts echoing indistinctly in his mind. "Alright, detour, you help her out of here."

He snorted, like an Alpha Male emphasizing his authority. "Damn straight," He moved up to the bars as Freddy looked at Jamie, looking surprised.

"So, who ARE you talking too?" Freddy asked.

"You don't need to hear it. All you need to know is I got fucked up and now I look like this and talk out loud more than usual." Jamie grabbed the bars and put his feet on the wall, he pulled, the metal creaked slightly. It wasn't giving. He jumped off and bared his claws. "Stand away from the door."

The three complied and Jamie paused before swiping upwards at the hinges of the door. His claws cut through the metal with some difficulty, but he still managed it in a single swipe. He pulled on the door and managed to bend the metal of the lock backwards and wrenched backwards, pulling the metal out and tossing the door aside.

Amy walked out first, running up to Jamie and putting a hand on the mask over his face. She had a calculated look on her face, one Jamie had seen many times. She mainly had it on when she was trying to solve a problem. It wouldn't take long before she put two and two together. "This is the thing that made you like this, right?"

Jamie nodded, looking away from her. "Well, that one was obvious." The Nightmare Mask said coolly. "Let's see if she can put the other piece into place?"

"It's alive." She muttered and Jamie nodded once more. "You've gotta get that thing off as soon as possible."

"The mask is alive?" Freddy rolled his eyes and walked . "Don't you think it's a little more likely that your friend is just crazy?"

His comment was ignored while Jason looked around skittishly and ran his fingers through his neon green hair. Freddy looked at the ground and picked up an iron pipe that had obviously fallen from the ceiling. Jamie grabbed it from him immediatley and tosse it up in the air, catching it and looking at it. He tried imagining swinging it with his current physique and immediately handed it back to Freddy, he couldn't even stand up straight for more then 15 seconds. It wouldn't make a good weapon for him.

"So how did you two get locked in here?" Jamie started trotting down the hall the way he came, nodding for them to follow.

The three had to jog to even keep up with his rather slow trot. Amy responded first. "Some old man and some snarling ghouls grabbed us while we were out. We were pulled into some big purple tunnel-thing and now we're here!"

Jamie paused, thinking to himself and starting to trot again. "What were you doing exactly?"

"Sexual stuff." Jason said instantly and was elbowed in the gut by his brother. He bent over and Jamie turned around, looking at them. Under normal circumstances he'd have punched Jason too, but there were slightly more important matters at hand. However they were only SLIGHTLY more important on his list. He acted more like an over protective older brother as far as people sleeping with her; male or female.

Amy blushed, but otherwise showed no sign of a response and kept moving. The Nightmare Mask let out a soft laugh. "You like her," She commented.

"Not like that." Jamie said quietly.

"Yes, you do." She sounded confident in her analysis. "I used to have a crush on someone you know."

"Oh really," Jamie really didn't care, he so far hadn't seen any sign of monsters as he backtracked and exited the dungeon and went down a torch lit hallway, dank and dirty with aged wood and stone keeping the place from collapsing around them.

"Yes, really." She sighed, fondly recalling it. "She was beautiful beyond words."

Something clicked in Jamie's mind. "She?" He wasn't sure how to take the fact that the mask, an inanimate object, had an orientation.

"Yeah, but her boyfriend was pretty good looking too." She shivered on Jamie's face. "Damn! It was hot to see those two go at it. Like a free porno!"

"Okaaay," Jamie cut her off, not wanting to hear any more. "Now that you've sufficiently scarred me for life, we need to change the subject."

"What? You're pretty friend is bisexual, ain't she?" The mask was a little surprised at his reaction.

"Yes, and she's got skin and a body. You're... a..." He paused, not really knowing what to call her. Yes, she was a mask, but that was a drastic simplification of her case. "Inanimate Symbiote?" He wasn't sure that was a good phrase to describe her, but for now it would work.

He paused, stopping and laying low as he heard foot steps. He raised a clawed hand and motioned for the three to get behind him. Bones crunched loudly and screams could be heard. From a turn in the hallway and wave of blood splashed against the opposite wall. Rick rammed forwards and into sight. A rather small bright blue ghast was attached to his shoulder arm. He smashed it against the wall and it died with an unnatural cry of agony. Rick pulled away from the wall and brushed the remains of the corpse off his shoulder.

"There she is! Told ya she was just around the corner." The Terror Mask said confidently.

"I know, I didn't doubt you." Rick said to him. He paused, looking at the figures behind Jamie, he was crouched low, so he could see the neon green and bright blue hair. "Freddy and Jason?" He walked forwards and Jamie sighed, relieved. He was sure Rick would attack him soon.

"I know that voice." Jason said. "Rick?" He ran out from behind Jamie and skidded to a halt in front of Rick. "Dude! You look..." He looked Rick up and down as Freddy followed behind him. "Like the Hulk... with a mask."

Rick laughed in a strange way, crossing his arms. "I think I'm a little better then the Hulk." His tone indicated he was almost a little insulted.

"Getting a little cocky, aren't ya Rick-O?" The Mask asked coolly.

"Shut up," He thought to the mask and then spoke out loud. "What are you doing here?"

Jamie moved forwards, but was tense. "For now, I've managed to detour Nightmare so she's not going to try to kill you till Amy is safe." Rick nodded, lowering his guard. "But apparently they came here because they were captured by an old man and some monsters."

"West," Rick muttered. "I guess he's here then."

"West?" Freddy paused, the name rung a bell. "That school teacher you were fuming about?"

"Yeah," Rick looked away and sighed. "I think I know why he captured you."

Jason looked interested, he felt a little intimidated considering there was a blood-soaked freak on each side of him in the hallway. "Why?"

"Probably to experiment on you and turn you into monsters." Rick spoke in a tone usually one wouldn't speak in when discussing such a topic. It was like he was listing off what he was getting at the grocery store.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: The Blood in the Chapel

Jamie dashed in again and Rick raised his fist, it glowed with an orange light and he brought it down on Jamie only for him to bare his claws and cut Rick's left arm at the shoulder and grab the base of the glowing limb and smack Rick in the ribs with it, releasing a wave of energy, forming cuts across his torso. Rick responded by grabbing his dismembered arm from Jamie's clawed hands and slamming the body part into his shoulder and sending him flying into the walls of the church. Jamie was dazed and shook his head, slowly getting to his feet.

Rick looked at his left shoulder, where Jamie had made a fairly clean cut. He was bleeding mass amounts of blood and looked up as Jamie dashed in on all fours and Rick smirked. His rib cage burst open and he transformed. Jamie jerked and twitched, falling to the ground as blood sucked from his body to Rick's. "Damn! That's the right stuff." The mask said cheerfully. When it was over, Rick had returned to normal and fully regrown his missing arm while all his wounds were healed.

Jamie got to his feet and jumped, landing on the wall of the church and climbing up the stone with the ease of a spider. He climbed on top of the roof and motioned for Rick to follow. Rick ran forwards and jumped onto the statue of an angel, when he jumped off, it crumbled and he grabbed onto a circular structure. He jumped again and pulled himself up to the roof. "Nice move, leading this muscle bound freak onto our territory. He's not as agile or fast as we are."

Jamie nodded as Rick charged at him in a ram. Jamie jumped and landed on Rick's back and he rolled forwards in response, forcing Jamie to jump off and spin around to face Rick. "I need some kind of advantage, he's more experienced then I am."

"He's also slow as fuck! Now kill them both! Gut Rick like a fish and CUT THAT MASK IN HALF!" She bellowed at him.

Jamie moved with incredible speed, he jumped at Rick, who raised a fist and punched Jamie in the stomach, before he could land. Jamie was pushed back, he would have been spitting blood if Nightmare wasn't covering his face to the point that he was surprised he could breathe. Rick ran forwards and Jamie was already on his feet. Rick raised a glowing orange fist and made to slam it down on top of Jamie, who rolled to the side to dodge the blow. Rick ended up sinking his fist into the roof of the building. Jamie jumped onto Rick's back and grabbed the mask on his face. Rick grabbed Jamie's arms and pulled him off his back with ease. He swung around and slammed Jamie into the wall of one of the towers on the roof, cracking the stone on impact.

"I can't beat him." Jamie said as Rick cracked his knuckles. "I'm gonna die." He let out a low laugh. "Bad guys always lose." He couldn't even finish his thoughts as the Nightmare Mask took over. His body transformed and Nightmare got to her feet.

"Knew I should have gone host shopping before starting the mission." She muttered to herself. She ran at Rick, and raised both claws to slash him, he caught a wrist in each hand and held his position, straining slightly against he pressure. She slowly moved her claws closer to his face and Rick grunted as she slowly pushed towards him.

"Dammit! How do I do the thing?" Rick asked while his voice strained from the effort of holding back Nightmare.

"You're still clueless on how to activate that?" The Terror Mask asked bluntly. "Just focus! Want it! Make it happen!"

"You're making no fucking sense!" Rick said. He tried focusing on his chest, tensing the muscles and doing his best to will the rush to come back.

"You idiot!" The mask sighed and as Nightmare's claws moved inches in front of the Terror Mask he took over and as Rick's muscle bulged, he pushed Nightmare back and maintained a firm grip on her wrists. The bones jutted from his skin and he span around and slammed Nightmare to the ground. He pulled his arms back and his blades extended. Nightmare's claws glowed purple and the red lines on her body spread, engulfing her hands and finally turning black. He moved to cut her in half and his eyes widened in surprise when his blades met her claws. She sliced the bone blades in half and rolled to her feet. The Terror Mask growled at her as what was left of his blades retracted back into his arm. His blades regenerated in an instant and he tried to move forwards with his blades extending again only for Nightmare to move with extreme speed, she was in front of his gut before he even knew it. She sank her claws into his stomach and both Rick and the Mask screamed in agony as their body lit up like a christmas tree in purple light. Their flesh was glowing and when she pulled out her claws both were trying to piece together what happened. The Terror Mask fell over. The roof was slanted and their body started to slide down the stone "shingles". Nightmare watched as Rick fell off the roof and hit the ground with a dull thud. She smirked, and jammed her left claw into the air, piercing the air and moving backwards, dragging her nails through the air and cutting holes in it, leaving a void into blackness that merely hung there. The Terror Mask stumbled to his feet, holding their head. "What was that?" Rick managed to mutter.

"A mean ass spell. I think she might be a Sorceress." The mask said in response, but he gasped in pain. He was actually generalizing, picking the closest word that would allow Rick to get the basic idea of what he was talking about. Rick felt a massive burning sensation his his chest and if he had control of his body he would have put his hand to his chest. "Thanks for the extra energy." The mask sounded like it felt better, but Rick sure didn't.

"Why would you do that?!" He thought weakly to the mask. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the mask had painfully stolen some of his hosts supply of energy.

The mask jumped up and grabbed onto one of the angels and up to the roof. "Because you're too stupid to even know how to use the energy you have."

"Yeah! But that fucking hurt!" Rick wished he was the one moving his arms and legs as the mask pulled them up to their feet and Nightmare lowered herself to the ground.

"Well now you have a very minute idea of how I felt when YOU STARVED ME SO YOU COULD HEAR A FUCKING STORY!" The mask screamed and Rick's mind vibrated, he just wanted to curl up and put his hands over his ears. He felt like he was having a hangover, but the masks voice in his head actually hurt like sound. This was made worse when the Nightmare Masks voice grated painfully in his ears.

"You recovered from that fairly quickly." Rick wished he could claw at his own ears as she spoke. Oh shit, he hoped this wouldn't get worse.

"Ricky," The Terror Mask spoke in a rather gleeful tone that caused Rick to moan in pain in his own skull. "Ricky... it gets worse."

He was right, aside from the intense headache, there was a buzzing starting up in his ears. "I can't believe you're still holding a grudge over that." He thought to the mask.

The mask ignored him as Nightmare lunged at him, her claws still glowing purple with black skin. The Terror Mask slammed his fists to the ground and bones erupted below her, she ended up being tossed into the air in mid-jump and the Terror Mask moved forwards as the bones sank back into the ground and as she fell he knelt low and spread out his arms and the blades extended. He readied himself as she fell and he swiped is blades upwards. She reacted in midair well, flipping to face downwards, she grabbed one of the blades and flipped around to the other side of the blade as he moved the blades along each other like scissors. She slid down as the blades began to retract and jumped forwards, landing on his chest as the blades finished retracting and she grabbed onto the mask and pulled, only to immediately be grabbed by the arm. The Terror Mask spun around for momentum and released her, sending her flying off the roof and clear over the wall surrounding the cemetery. She eventually crashed a dozen meters past the wall and into a horse statue decorating a grave.

The Terror Mask relinquished control of their body and Rick felt his knee's wobble as he changed back and he fell over and started slowly sliding down the roof again. He got his grip and slowly stood up, holding his head. "You're an ass."

Jamie pushed himself out of the rubble of the tombstone. His vision was blurring and he stumbled on all fours around the grounds of the cemetery. He couldn't even piece together what had happened, his hands had gone numb from the burning. "What do we do? He's strong enough to rip us in half." Jamie collapsed, falling on his side.

"Get up! You're still in one piece!" Jamie flinched as a charred piece of his left palm fell clean off, revealing the bone of the base of his thumb. "Mostly one piece!" She paused and considered her words carefully. "Obviously our body can't handle my real claws if they're falling apart after just half a minute of baring them. Too bad, I hope the bones of our hands last long enough to make the final cut." She laughed softly. "Now get up!"

Jamie pushed himself to his feet and he groaned. "Now get out of here, he'll win if we keep fighting. They're stronger then us. They've got more blood and they've got more experience." She paused again. "I think that mask is older then me too."

He turned around and started running, away from the church. "Where do we go now?" He asked her.

"Down-fucking-town!" She shouted through Jamie with a burst of enthusiasm. "The center point between all four places of power! We make the last cut there and my Client will be free and I'll get my compensation."

"And I'll get my body back?" Jamie hopped over the stone wall on the opposite side of the cemetery. "And then I will be killed immediately." His heart sank. He really didn't want to die. But he'd rather die with a sound mind and able to comprehend his actions then be insane and unable to regret what he was doing.

"Sooner we get there, the sooner you get squished. I'd take my time if I was you."

Jamie picked up speed, dashing across the weed-ridden land, his voice shook when he spoke. "I'd rather get it over with." Maybe he really WAS crazy if he was taking that attitude towards this.

Rick looked up from his current position, his vision focused on something hanging in midair. A strip of blackness. It sparked with some strange light. The sound of the sparks vibrated annoyingly in his ears. "What the hell is that?" He pushed himself to his feet.

The mask considered it as the hovering darkness moved, like it was a window to something and something on the other side of the window passed by. "You know, it's funny, if I didn't know better I'd say that's a cut in the fabric of reality." He paused, smirking. "That means it is. By the way; I'd run if I were you."

Rick turned around and ran, jumping off the roof and landing in a crouch. He turned around as the blackness began to spread and spark violently. The tear in reality widened as something pushed out of it. The tear spread to meters in length and something white and pointed poked out of it. A massive head pushed out of the hole. Around its head was something vaguely resembling a crown of bone. Large glowing silver eyes looked at Rick, who stepped backwards to get a better view of the creature. Wrapped around the face was lines of black chains that began to snap. It definitely looked human-like as far as the basic facial structure. It's skin was gray and wrinkled with a mouthful of needle sharp, massive teeth. The head shook from side to side, hovering in midair as it pushed from its prison to our word. Clearly this thing was massive from the size of the arm he had seen and the head. Around its head, where hair might have been was a mass of bloody bandages. Many scars covered its face. It shook its head, snapping any remaining chains and scrunched its face, like it was thinking. It looked like it was definitely male. From the forehead to the chin, a strip of flesh on the right side of its face loosened and fell off, slipping out from under the bandages across its head. It smashed through the roof of the church and landed into the chapel. The beast let out an echoing howl, the blood dripped from its face, one could even see the bones of its forehead, its cheek bone and a portion of its jaw. Rick put his hands over each side of his head. "Gaaaah!" His eyes rolled back as his skull vibrated from the volume.

"Get over it pussy." The mask scolded.

The head of the Abomination growled at Rick, baring its teeth and even opened its mouth. Rick could swear he could hear words coming out of the growls. "Dinner!" He thought it said. It sank back into the tear in reality and vanished completely. The tear seemed to seal up behind him.

There was a sound of crunching stone from inside the church. Rick heard the muffled sound of a bursting artery. Bones crunched and Rick scowled, making his way around to the double doors. He took a deep breath and put his hands onto the eye sockets that were the grips to open the doors. He pulled, he still felt like crap, but maybe he'd figure out how to get something out of this creature to make himself feel better. Absorbing was awkward, but he could do it with a few seconds to hold still. The mask felt a pang of excitement that shot up their spine, the doors weren't even fully opened but they quickly burst open as whatever was inside broke out and knocked Rick backwards, onto his back. A shadow moved over him and skidded on the ground behind him. He rolled onto his stomach and pushed himself to his feet. His eyes widened in surprise at what he saw. "A dragon?!"

"A komodo dragon!" The Mask said with interest. "First was a naga, then a bat and now a dragon."

It certainly resembled a komodo dragon. Its long forked tongue whipped out and waved over Rick's chest. He actually laughed as it ticked his stomach and zipped back into its mouth while Rick stepped back and rubbed his stomach. "Way to go tough guy." The mask said sarcastically.

The lizard moved forwards, it had floppy four inch "quills" that hung along its spine and even went down between its eyes to the tip of its nose. The "quills" stopped short at the base of its tail. Unlike a komodo, its claws were short and curled like a big cat. It moved forwards with a certain sense of grace. It looked at Rick, who cracked his knuckles and stretched the muscles of his shoulder. The creature shook its head at him and snapped its teeth, not in a menacing way, but in more of a "pay attention" sort of way.

"I think it's trying to tell us something." The mask said slowly. "Kill it anyway."

The komodo stepped back a few feet and stepped up on its back legs, pointing its nose up at the sky. Rick looked up and his eyes widened. "Has the moon always been like that?" Rick sincerely wanted the answer to be yes.

It certainly wasn't an eclipse, but something transparent and also pink was moving across the surface of the moon. It was a lot like claws moving over the moon.

"Well... no... no it hasn't." The Terror Mask said, almost sounding disgusted. Obviously pink wasn't his favorite color.

"Well fuck me pink." Rick said, crossing his arms, only to exhale loudly as the komodo raced towards him and head-butted him. Its mouth was easily large enough to bite him in half. Rick was slammed into the wall and slid down to the ground. He landed in a heap and got up. "Are meteorites going to start falling from the sky, too?"

"We'll find out soon enough." The mask said as the lizard charged at them again. Rick looked at the statue next to him and jumped up and landed on the angel, using its wings to keep his balance as the beast rammed head first into the wall. It pulled out of the rubble and hissed at Rick.

"Why are you fighting me?" The lizard growled, its voice was low and raspy.

Rick's eyes widened in surprise. "You can talk?!"

It tilted its head to the side, it almost seemed to be smiling. The way it moved seemed to be the sort of response that would be accompanied by the remark "I dabble here and there." It's eyes flashed silver and it growled at Rick. "Why bother fighting me? Do you really think the body I will give that girl is the only one I can create?"

Rick's eyes widened as he felt the mask's surprise and suddenly greed. Rick felt a smile involuntarily curl across his face. "Keep talking," The mask said through him. Rick tried to move but the Terror Mask wouldn't have it, he wasn't transformed but Rick still felt like every move he tried to make was being blocked.

"I was once as you are. Immobile and frozen. I can give you the secrets to your own body." The lizard looked to the side, a dark grin clear on its face.

The mask considered this very seriously, it was obvious what the Abomination wanted. It wanted him to back off and help with the ritual. He was no mercenary but he also wasn't stupid enough to put up with limiting himself professionally. He paused, as he sensed something within the lizard. It was faint, but Rick was struggling and it was distracting having to hold back the human trying to control his own body and pay attention to this at the same time. "Rick, I'm not going to accept this offer." The Terror Mask whispered in his ear, Rick stopped struggling, skeptical at the masks claim. It paused, now that it had gotten Rick to calm down it could close its eyes and focus. After a few seconds it smirked. "You're a liar!" It stated bluntly. "You're stringing that merc along!"

The lizard looked insulted. "How dare you!" It growled, baring its teeth and moving closer to Rick.

"How do you know its lying?" Rick asked the mask, able to control his body again.

"Look who you're talking too?" The mask said. "I may not lie much to you because I need you to trust me, but deceit is my middle name." Rick felt a pang of annoyance while the mask let out an aura of pride. THAT was not something to brag about.

The lizard jumped at them and Rick jumped off the angel and landed in a roll on the ground. The lizard jumped after him and Rick turned around and caught the lizard's jaws in his hands. He held his ground as he held the mouth open, straining against the beast. He lifted it up with a single wrenching movement and slammed it down. It landed square on its feet and Rick span around and let go, managing to slide it back a few meters. It growled at him and then looked up at the moon. It stuck out its tongue and licked the air. It began to mumble to itself and looked down at Rick, scowling. "Don't fuck with me!" It hissed and next to it a transparent mass of purple tentacles formed. It jumped head-first into the portal and Rick immediately jumped in after it. The portal vanished, leaving the forsaken grounds empty and abandoned.


	14. Chapter 14

Hey guys, it's the last chapter (or second to last chapter, point is the ending is begin!

After all this, take a peek at my profile page, I have a link to my Fictionpress account where I am DEFINITELY starting my own story called "To Kill Fate". It's first person and, guess what? The main character is going to kill Fate. You'll notice minor parallels from this and Splatterhouse because I REALLY wanted a main character with a voice in his head. But I didn't want it to be too obvious, so I covered my bases in brainstorming, alternate personalities, pretty much everything. Finally settled on a nice surprise that I doubt anyone will see coming. Also there will be monsters and violence because Fate is not going to die without a fight. He's a god after all. So is the voice in the main characters head.

Chapter 14: The Apex of Combat

Rick landed in a crouch on the asphalt, the ground crunched loudly on impact. He heard a horn honking behind him and he turned around to see a pickup truck heading towards him. He held his ground and put his hands in front of him, bracing himself only for the ground in front of him to heave upwards, a slab of earth bursting from the ground. While it did so, the street he was standing on sank a little and he looked at the cracking asphalt. The truck was sent flying into the air and crashed a few memters away from Rick, landing on the roof of a building and crashing through it. He could hear wood snapping and plaster crumbling.

He looked around, downtown was not the way he had left it. He paused as something dripped on him from above. When the ground had heaved upwards, so did some of the sewer, and a large hunk of black sludge landed on his back. He scowled. "Agh! What is this stuff?" He reached back and flung some of the sludge off him.

"Probably shit," The mask said. "And whatever else gets in the storm drains."

"Thanks, I feel better already." Rick said sarcastically.

The moon overhead was completely pink now, obviously they had jumped some amount of time into the future, could have been hours or minutes. The ground was heavily cracked and some of the buildings were crumbling. Most notable of all though, was the craters with giant meteorites in them. "Incoming!" The mask said and Rick looked overhead and immediately sprinted forwards as a meteor landed where he was, crushed through the asphalt and into the sewer below. He was knocked forwards from the wave the meteor gave off when it landed. He skidded on the cracked asphalt and it made the slightest scrapes in his skin. He pushed himself to his feet and looked around. "Where's the lizard?" He didn't see any trace of it, but he could feel something thick in the air, like it was suffocating him. It was most intense in one specific direction.

"You feel it, let's get going! I am NOT letting that thing into this world! The Corrupted and the Evil One didn't want to deal with it and neither do I!" The Terror Mask screamed.

Rick nodded and started running down the streets, the air seemed to be growling at him, he turned a corner to head in the right direction and paused as he saw sparks running through the air. There was a spire-like monument blocks down. Rick could see the lizard moving in the shadows ahead of him. He ran forwards without a second thought. His eyes widened as he ran as he could swear he heard something, something echoing in the air, it was like nothing he had heard before. It made his spine go numb. "What is that?"

The mask remained silent for a few seconds before saying "It's the screaming of the stars. The Universe is terrified."

"Oh," Rick said, not really sure how to respond to that. He kept moving, only to yell as the ground below him sank down several feet. He dashed forwards and jumped, grabbing onto the strip of asphalt as the ground gave way at least fifty feet, buildings on both sides of him crumbled and collapsed from the lack of support. He pulled himself to his feet and kept moving. Ahead he could see what he was sure was Jamie moving up the monument.

"Run Forest! Run!" The Mask shouted.

Up ahead, Jamie had reached the tip of the monument and sighed. "You're sure this is the place?"

The lizard below stuck its tongue out and had its head tilted to the side, watching carefully. "Hurry up Trader!" He bellowed.

"Gimme a fucking minute!" Nightmare shouted. She took over and transformed Jamie's body. Her claws turned purple and extended, the red lines spread like cracks across the skin of her hands until the whole hand glowed red and finally the light shifted to black. She jumped and held out both claws. She fell the whole distance to the ground which was easily ten or fifteen stories. Her claws cut through the air and left a long vertical gash in reality. The air sparked and a meteor crashed close by, taking off the top of the spire monument. When she landed she pulled her claws back, out of the gash she had left that floated in reality. Her claws cooled down and returned to normal. "Last cut, now we wait till the rest of you joins us." She stood as best she could on her hind legs and rubbed her knuckles against her chest. "Pretty good, huh? Told you this would be a sinch."

"I'm gonna fucking die!" Jamie moaned.

"Yes you are." Nightmare said cheerfully.

"And it's all my fault!" He said.

"Well you either died now or two weeks from now. If you had waited you'd die while completely insane. Interpret that how you want."

"This sucks,"

"Only for you and every other living thing in this universe." Nightmare laughed and looked at the lizard that walked by her and looked at the strip she had cut in reality. "We have to move, the rest of you is going to be ripping through all the way now. You've got enough power to get completely out, don't you?"

The lizard nodded and the two of them began running down a street as Rick came face to face with them. Rick raised his fists only for the two to pass him. He paused, turning around to watch them run away. "Hey! Don't run away you pussies!"

"Rick, run!" The mask said.

"What?" Rick sounded confused and turned around. "Why?" He paused as he saw the sparking hole in reality, something was moving on the other side, he saw a flash of silver and he stepped away. "Nevermind," He turned around and ran after the lizard and Nightmare, who was shrinking down and giving Jamie control. "WAIT FOR ME!"

The air behind him writhed and screamed as massive bloody fingers moved through the holes in reality and tore them open, revealing a humanoid entity. The air cracked as the Corrupted grabbed onto the asphalt, as soon as it touched the ground, Rick could swear he heard the sound the Mask had told him was the screaming of the stars grow even louder, much more clear. It reverberated in his mind and he wanted to cover his ears, but he felt there was more important matters at hand such as running. He turned around and skidded to a halt as the lizard and Jamie slowed to a stop. The Abomination sank his fingers through the earth and pulled himself forwards. Bandages covered the gray skin across the torso and they were heavily stained with blood. It had a clear hole in its chest that glowed softly. Rick looked at this monster, there seemed to be something small in its chest, probably small enough to fit in his normal hand. The humanoid creature pulled its torso through the hole, some more black chains glowed red around his chest and snapped. He pulled, dragging its body through, slowly. Its entire lower half was blood, it poured onto the ground in gallons, Rick could actually see the Abyss on the other side.

"STOP STANDING THERE AND PUSH IT BACK IN!" The mask shouted.

Rick nodded and ran forwards; he was immediately tackled and pinned to the ground by the lizard. Rick struggled as the creature pinned his arms to his back. He managed to push himself up a bit with his legs but he felt the tail of the creature wrap around his legs and pulled them up, off the ground. "I don't think so, I don't want you two to ruin my fun." The lizard whispered in his ear.

Rick squirmed, trying to pull out of the lizard's grip. "Help me out here!" Rick begged the mask.

"Use the force Rick!" Rick growled in frustration and the mask laughed going. "Just fucking with ya," It grew hot and took over, bones jutting from his skin and actually pushing the lizard back as the spikes of bone burst from his back in a wave of blood. The mask pushed itself to its feet and the lizard growled, baring its teeth. Strangely enough, Jamie was sitting in a crouch, watching the fight and not lifting a claw to help. The reason was mainly that Nightmare had done her part and wasn't obligated to do anything else; contract wise. The lizard jumped at the mask, who swung an arm and sliced an extendable blade across the creatures jugular. It crashed into their chest and slowly tried to push itself to its feet as blood poured from its neck. The mask lifted a foot and slammed it down onto the lizards skull, crushing the brain. The Abomination didn't seem too happy at thisas when the mask turned around, the hand smacked him and slammed him through a building, in fact it slammed in through two buildings. He smashed through several walls before flying into a wall of plaster and finally crashed into a beam of wood that held strong and only caved slightly. The mask released control of Ric's body, dialing down the power.

"Did anyone get the number of the stampeding elephant?" Rick asked, slowly stumbling to his feet, actually staggering to the side and bumping into a closet, which let out a scream after he bumped into it. Obviously there was a woman hiding in there. There weren't a lot of people in the area, likely because all the stores were closed at this time, probably 2 in the morning. "Sorry ma'am, that was an accident." Rick said as he made his way over to the hole he left in the wall.

The Abomination looked at the crushed remains of itself. It had regrown the missing chunk of flesh that had once been this lizard. It had already pulled itself out of the Abyss completely. The hole in reality began to close, the lines sealing together in a way that might make one think they were being sewn back into place. It growled and Jamie's legs moved him forwards, towards the Abomination. His eyes widened as he looked at the creature. Its chest was thin and he could see its rib cage. It had to be the largest living thing he had ever seen. Much larger than the first monster he had killed. This gray creatures back half was a bloody mess of tendrils, starting just below the last rib of his rib cage.

"I've set you free," Nightmare said. The ground behind her cracked and comets continued to rain from the sky, smashing through sky scrapers and pounding holes through the streets. "I upheld my end of the contract. Now it's time for you go uphold yours."

The Abomination smiled, its silver eyes flashing brightly. It was creepy to see a face that large smile with a mouth full of teeth. It it could have stood up from its rib-cage where the bloody tetacles were, it probably would have been about seven or eight stories tall. It raised a hand above Nightmare and slammed it down, Nightmare rolled to the side and avoided being smashed. "What the fuck?!" She screamed. "We had a deal, remember?!"

"FUCK the deal! I want my claws back!" The Abomination growled at her, its voice was actually very difficult to understand due to how it echoed and growled with every breath and word.

"What?" Nightmare asked slowly. "What are you talking about?"

The Abomination raised its bloody fingers, scarred tissue revealed it had no claws to speak of, but something had certainly been ripped out of there. Rick stumbled into view and paused, watching the affair through the hole in the wall. One more step and he'd set his foot on the sidewalk.

"Four centuries ago, you were created." The Abomination growled.

"How do you know how old I am?" Nightmare asked, stepped backwards.

"Because," The Abomination stared hatefully at her. "That was the day I lost the Claws of Eternity that you used to cut through reality. The ritual that gave you life stole from me, stole my power to escape." He snarled and put a hand on the ground to push himself up. "Imagine my surprise when you were dumped upon my grounds? Of all the entities to reach me, it was the one who had stolen my claws." It glanced at Rick, who was staring in surprise, his jaw had actually dropped. It then turned its attention back to Nightmare. "I hadn't been able to move to cut my way out of the Abyss, so I had to slowly wiggle my way to making a hole large enough to drop bits of flesh into the different worlds. Then, when I thought I might be able to draw enough power to break my chains, they were stolen from me."

"Oh... my... God!" Rick said.

"I'm pretty sure he's not helping." The Terror Mask said.

Jamie backed up as the Abomination dug its bloody fingers into the asphalt, crumbling it. "What do we do?!" Rick jumped onto the sidewalk and looked up at the Abomination.

"We kill it!" Nightmare said loudly. "Nobody, and I mean NOBODY double crosses me! It's not good for business. If I start making exceptions now, people will start thinking this is a charity." She looked at Rick and the Terror Mask. "Hey handsome! Wanna help?"

"Hell yeah! Do I get a blow job afterwards?" The Terror Mask said excitedly.

"No,"

"That's alright we can work out something later." They turned their attention to the Abomination, which growled at them. It raised a hand over Rick and slammed it down, he rolled out of the way and ran up beside Jamie.

"Well, this is great; I've saved the world, the Multiverse and now I can save the universe. I'm covering my bases." Rick said candidly to Jamie.

"You saved the world?" Jamie asked curiously.

"Yes, I already told you that, remember?"

Jamie paused and shrugged. "Thanks for that?"

"Don't thank me yet," Rick said quickly.

"FOCUS YOU IDIOTS!" The Terror Mask snapped through Rick.

The Abomination grimaced as it watched the two converse. Its throat swelled and its cheeks blew up like it was holding its breath. Its silver eyes flashed and it released a spray of light brown liquid, spraying it onto the street. It was actually going to be difficult for this creature to exit the area for the Spire Monument. It was a very large circle area that had a decent amount of open space. Though there was four roads leading out of the circle. The liquid splashed up in droplets as it hit the street. The asphalt beneath began to hiss loudly and steam rose up. Some of the drops his Rick as he raised his arms, some of the drops hit his skin and he hissed, rubbing his skin as it burned. "It's acid!" He said and immediately ran and jumped up and onto a window, looking down as the liquid poured down the road and down the storm drains. Jamie quickly hopped onto a wall and began crawling up it. Rick paused as he watched Jamie scaled the wall. "Why can't I do that?"

"I don't know Rick, why can't he catch a meteor?" The mask condescended to him.

"That was awesome," Rick said quickly.

"It wasn't that big of a deal, Rick!" The mask snapped.

The Abomination growled at him slammed its hand at him, Rick jumped up at the last minute and landed on the Abominations hand. He looked at the shining hole in the Abominations chest. "What is that thing, anyway?" The Abomination raised a hand and Rick was forced to run up the arm, maintaining his balance as the monster tried to swat him like a bug.

"That's his weak spot!" Nightmare said while Jamie jumped off the wall and landed on the elbow of the arm Rick was on. "He wasn't always a fleshy. He used to be an artifact, that artifact is lodged inside that light in his chest. Rip it out and destroy it."

"That sounds familiar." Rick noted and immediately found himself grabbing tightly onto the loose, gray skin of the monster's arm as it tilted its arm to the side and tried to shake him off. Jamie had no trouble holding on and even began to climb up the shaking arm and even climbs to the underside of the arm so he was upside down as a hand moved to swat him, missing as he moved under. Jamie jumped at the chest, landing next to the glowing hole in the center and cut at the light. It sparked when he did so and Jamie pulled back, his back feet were lodged firmly into the skin to allow him to stand sideways and attack with both front claws. He looked up as the Abomination swung its hand at Jamie, swiping vertically; he flattened low, the wind blowing over his body as it missed its target.

" I gots me an idear." Nightmare said with a hic accent for some reason. She took over Jamie and transformed, his flesh bursting open to reveal those flaming patches of energy. Her glaws changed, the bones turning purple and the lines expanding to consume the whole hand and then becoming black. She sank her claws into the flesh and the Abomination lit up' glowing softly. It screamed loudly and writhed, Rick was forced to let go and was slammed into a wall, hitting solid brick and crushing into it. He pulled out his arm and began to move out of the Rick-shaped indentation in the wall. The Abomination continued to writhe and scream only to eventually push itself up slightly and howl at the pink moon. Nightmare pulled out her claws and jumped up, grabbing onto the monsters collar bone and then hopping onto its shoulder as the beast fell over just as she hopped onto its back. It crashed forwards and moaned in pain.

Rick landed on the ground, covered in powdered brick. Nightmare looked at him and shouted. "Take over and lift up this guy so I can get at the chest." His back was actually completely sealed up and the outline of his spine could be seen. The Terror Mask complied and grew hot, taking over and doubling Rick's body in size, the bones bursting painfully from his body and leaving pints of blood on the ground. He ran up and hopped over the arms that were wrapped around the monsters head and he ran up to the shoulder as Nightmare hopped over him and landed on his back, using the bloody spikes sticking out of his back to keep grounded. The Terror Mask lifted up the body and pushed up, pushing the body up and back, so the beast was on its back. Nightmare hopped over the red tentacles that formed the lower part of its body. She landed on his lower chest and jumped upwards again, raising her claws and slashing downwards at the light. The light shattered like glass to reveal a small bright green object, it was vertically symmetrical and flat. There was no telling what it was made of, it was a spiky looking flame-like artifact that glowed eerily. Nightmare landed next to it, surrounded by flesh. She raised a clawed hand to grab it only for the flesh of the walls around her to spark madly. She and Jamie both screamed in pain, the Abomination quickly reached into its own chest and grabbed her between two fingers, he threw her and she crashed into what remained of the Spire Monument. She slid down the spire, leaving a slight trail of blood as she slid and shifted back before finally falling and hitting the pavement. "Ow!" Jamie said.

The Terror Mask shook his head and pulled back his arms, blades extending and he slashed forwards at the tentacles, releasing a spray of blood and causing the Abomination to scream in pain. The blades retracted to their normal size as it pushed itself up and slammed a fist down at him. The Mask caught it and smirked, the blades extending on the spot and jamming into the fist. The Abomination recoiled and pulled its fist back, the mask still had his blades lodged into its hand and it retracted the blades as the monster pulled its hand up. The mask soared through the air and fell down, the blades extending as it fell down towards the face. It swung the blades down and cut through the flesh of its face. It howled and the Mask retracted its blades, finally falling onto the creatures nose, which was really more of a hole in the middle of its face. He grabbed onto the edge of the hole and looked around it, noting the mucus lining the inside. "Someone needs to blow their nose once and a while."

The creature was breathing in and out and Rick's eyes crossed. "Fuck, this guy needs a breath mint." The mask pulled itself up, trying to use his feet to push himself up, but the sneakers slid against the gunk on the inside of the nose. The creature sat up a bit and started breathing funny, hesitating in its breaths.

"Oh shit, he's not going to…" Rick paused, feeling queasy already.

"He is," The Mask said just before the Abomination sneezed and was shot out of the nose along with a decent amount of muck and grime. He didn't bounce on impact with the asphalt, but he did slide, in fact the impact didn't hurt that much, since he was cushioned by so much slime. The Terror Mask changed back and Rick pushed the slime aside and wretched. "Fuck! This is DISGUSTING! FUCKING DISGUSTING!" He managed to push himself out of the gunk, but was still covered in it and he set his foot to the asphalt and immediately slipped and fell back into the muck. "Gaaaah!" He pulled himself up as the Abomination wiped its face with its arm and looked at Rick and actually laughed, slapping its palm against the ground and cracking the pavement.

Rick managed to slip and slide out of the muck while the Abomination continued to laugh and Rick wiped as much of the stuff off as he could while personally trying to prevent himself from vomiting. "Ugh!"

"Rick, he's distracted! Get him!"

Rick looked up as he saw the Abomination laughing and then the exposed artifact in his chest. Rick ran towards the monster and it suddenly let out a shriek and twitched in pain, cutting its laughter short, Jamie had latched onto its back and sunk his claws into its flesh, sucking up the blood from its body. Rick took his chance and jumped up the chest of the creature and hopped into the hole in its chest. He jumped up and grabbed onto the artifact. He hung in midair, still holding on. He swung to put his feet on the fleshy ground beside him and pushed at the object, trying to get it to move from its firm location in midair. He grunted from the effort and the Abomination stopped shivering from its blood being absorbed. It growled in frustration as Jamie crawled around the back, the Abomination swung a hand to smack him and Jamie hopped forwards, dodging it. He swung around and looked inside the hole in the chest and jumped in, landing on top of Rick, who was pressed between a wall and the object, sideways due to the Abomination sitting up instead of lying down. Jamie put his feet on Rick's shoulders and bore his claws, which actually glowed purple and as the lines of energy spread across his palms he made a clean cut through the object, cutting it in half. The Abomination let out a bloodcurdling scream. The body toppled backwards as the flesh of it burst open and the corpse twitched violently. Rick fell down and slid around the flesh of the inside of the Abomination's chest along with Jamie, who was holding the two halves of the artifact he had just destroyed. Eventually Jamie was pinned underneath Rick against the lining of the walls of the hole and Rick groaned.

"Get your claws out of my spine!" Rick rolled onto his stomach with Jamie still attached to him. Rick winced slightly as Jamie pulled his claws out, which had returned to normal. He shook his hands, which were completely numb.

Jamie looked at the two halves of the artifact and Rick snatched one of the half and tossed it into the air, catching it. "I'll be keeping this." He looked at it. "I like souvenirs." Jamie handed him the other half and he shrugged, sticking both halves in his pockets, he paused as he felt something chinking in his pocket, like broken glass. "My glasses are broken." He noted out loud. "I'm not surprised."

"Fuck that, let's get out of here!" Jamie said to him.

Rick nodded, looking up, the moon was starting to return to its normal color and he watched as a meteor flew overhead and, judging from the loud crunching of metal and wood, had crashed into a building. "I'm sure that was just a leftover meteorite."

Rick sat in his room, completely normal, except for his missing glasses, unpacking from his flight home, the Terror Mask was on his bed, surprisingly, accompanied by the Nightmare Mask and the cut remains of the Abomination. He walked over to his closet and pulled out a cardboard box that was folded shut and labeled "Boring Shit: Do Not Open." He walked over to the bed and picked up the two halves of the artifact and dropped it into the box, which was lined with cloth and accompanied by a small black jewel that was probably the size of one of the halves of the artifact. He folded the box shut and moved it back into his closet, making sure to put it behind a plastic container in his closet. He looked around and sighed, feeling slightly guilty.

"Rick!" Jennifer looked at him as he smiled nervously at her.

She crossed her arms and leaned against the door, she then eyed the two masks on the bed and sighed. "Why didn't you tell me you kept it? I wouldn't have been mad."

He shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck. "I dunno, I thought you would be mad."

She laughed credulously. "Rick, it's a mask that gives you SUPER POWERS! What's to be mad about? I'd have kept it."

He blushed, embarrassed and looked in the closet and ducked into the closet moved the plastic container aside and pulled out the cardboard box again. He looked at her and held it towards her. She walked over and took the box, opening it and looking at the contents. "What are these?"

"One is the Dark Stone," Rick pointed to the black crystal inside. "I couldn't let the Abyss keep it, it was too dangerous there."

She looked at him curiously with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Rick picked it up and winced as his fingers burned on contact. He dropped it and shook his fingers, hissing.

"Rick, Infused Souls aren't different enough from Contaminated, it can still eat you." The Terror Mask said, immobile on the bed.

He stuck his fingers in his mouth, annoyed. "It can be used in a ritual to alter the fabric of reality. So if I keep it here, nobody will be able to use it."

She stared at it and pushed the box back into Rick's hands, clearly a little confused. "What's the other thing?"

"It's a souvenir from my battle." He blushed. "I couldn't resist keeping it. It's harmless, don't worry."

"You know; Serial Killers like to keep trophies from their kills." The Terror Mask said to him. "Hint! Hint!"

She sighed and crossed her arms. "You've been keeping this from me for how long?"

He looked up at the ceiling, thinking. "Two years?" He immediately felt his cheek burn as Jennifer slapped him and he staggered back, holding his cheek. "Okay, I deserved that." He rubbed his cheek with his hand and walked over to the closet and put the box back in, moving the plastic container in front of it.

"Don't keep secrets from me, Rick." Jennifer said with a raised eyebrow. "Especially not ones this important."

"I also lied to you about the convention, it was a music festival." He said, lowering his hand to reveal his cheek was already red. Jen immediately slapped his other cheek and he fell over from the force.

"HEY! Stop manhandling MY PET!" The Terror Mask shouted angrily.

Jennifer's eyes widened and she looked around. "Who said that?!"

"HAH! I KNEW IT!" Rick shouted, pushing himself up with one hand and holding his other cheek with the other hand. "You DO think I'm a pet!"

"Yeah yeah, victory party later. Now sit boy!" The Terror Mask said.

Rick stumbled to his feet and rubbed his cheek while Jennifer held her head and looked increasingly confused. "I don't understand." She said.

Rick walked over to the bed and sat down next to the two masks. "This is the Nightmare Mask." He said, lifting up Nightmare and waving her in front of Jen. He then set her down and picked up the Terror Mask. "This is the Terror Mask." Rick set him down next to Nightmare and smiled nervously. "They're both alive. They can talk." He looked at the Terror Mask and glared at him. "And HE apparently thinks he owns me."

"I hate to admit it." The Terror Mask said with a guilty tone. "But the kid has really grown on me. So I've decided to keep him." He then spoke to Rick exclusively. "Now roll over and I'll scratch your belly."

Rick frowned at the comment, obviously thinking the mask didn't know who was in charge.

Jennifer looked at Rick while still holding her head and then looked at the ground. "I… I need to sit down." She walked out the room and shut the door behind her.

Rick sighed and grabbed the two masks, he opened his drawer and pulled up the false bottom. He set the Terror Mask in first and then the Nightmare Mask directly on top of him. He set down the false bottom and closed the drawer and watched it intently. He had been wondering about this for a while.

"So, since we're in position, do you mind if I start first?" The Terror Mask asked Nightmare.

"Fuck you," She responded tartly.

"I'm asking if you want too."

"Dammit, I am not interested in-" The drawer suddenly vibrated and Rick stood up, internally going "HAH! I knew it!"

"That ain't bad!" Nightmare said. "Move over to the left a little more."

The drawer continued to vibrate and Rick paused, thinking to himself. He obviously hadn't thought this through completely. He opened the drawer and started to pull out the false bottom only for him to jump back in surprise as the Terror Mask yelled at him. "DO YOU MIND!?" Rick rolled his eyes and shut the drawer with his foot and sighed.

"I'd better not open that thing to find a tiny mask at any time."

"We're not alive you idiot!" The drawer stopped vibrating and the Terror Mask sighed. "Okay! Done!"

Rick sighed and crawled on hands and knees to the drawer and cautiously pulled out the top drawer.

"What?! That's it? We do this once and we're done?" The Nightmare Mask shouted indignantly at him. "You're a pig."

"I got laid, I don't need you anymore and now I'm happy. Bow-chicka-bow-wow!" He laughed as Rick pulled up the false bottom and grimaced as he picked up the Nightmare Mask, which had droplets of blood on it and so did the Terror Mask.

Rick raised an eyebrow and looked at Nightmare and watched some of the blood on the mask drip onto the ground. "That was a neat experiment." He tapped the mask with his fingertip and tilted it around, looking at it from every angle. He squinted to try to make his vision a little clearer. "But how did it happen?"

"None of your business, Rick!" He paused. "But if you behave, I swear I'll get you some cheesecake." The Terror Mask condescended.

Rick rolled his eyes and tossed Nightmare carelessly to his left, onto the carpet. The carpet was brown, so he wasn't worried about stains. He stood up and paused, picking up a photo he had placed on his luggage. He glanced at it and smiled. It was of him, Jamie and Amy, who was actually kissing Jamie while he looked amazed and confused. The image was pretty blurry from his view, but he still knew what it was. They were standing next to a meteorite that had crashed in the middle of the street. Unlike most people, they were actually pretty excited at the time. Jen had questioned him a lot on the way home. His flight had actually been delayed by several days before he could go home because apparently some of the planes had been destroyed.

He looked at the closed door and clicked his teeth together nervously. "I'm gonna have a lot more explaining to do." He muttered to himself before standing up and opening the door. "Which reminds me, we're gonna have to talk about whether or not we'll keep the baby again." He muttered just as quietly.

"Hey Rick!" Rick turned around and looked at the open drawer the Terror Mask was in.

"What?" He asked.

"I just realized something hilarious." He said. "We totally forgot about West!"

Rick's eyes widened and he immediately punched himself in the head, followed up by lifting his shirt and biting into the cloth. He clenched his eyes shut, he didn't make any sounds, but his expression clearly indicated he was far from happy.


End file.
